National Treasure 3: Croatoa
by Alex Kade
Summary: This time it's Riley's turn to track down the treasure, but he finds himself facing someone who wants the treasure much more than he does - and is willing to do anything for it. Riley's past revealed, some whumpage, and all our fav characters are back!
1. Opening Flashback

**National Treasure 3: Croatoa**

_This is my interpretation of how the next National Treasure movie should play out. It's a bit more Riley centered than the actual movies, but he's my favorite character so I couldn't help myself! Also, as I see this actually playing out in my head like a movie, forgive me if it seems a little more screenplay-esque than novel-esque. In other words, it's very dialogue driven._

_**Flashback**_

Within a darkened tent lit only by a lantern resting on a cot-side table, a small boy sporting a mop of black hair sits on his father's lap, peering up at him with soft blue eyes. Looking bored, he continues reciting the last lines of the story while his father nods in approval.

"…and should you chance upon the warrior, stare deep into his eyes; for if you stand strong and pierce right through his burning gaze, only his eyes-"

"-eye, son, eye. It's just one."

The boy sighs, rolling his own eyes, "only his _eye_ will reveal the truth."

"Well done, son," the father says, ruffling the boy's hair. The boy suddenly looks up and watches as a pale young woman pushes the tent flap open and makes her way around a table stacked high with books and papers. Smiling, she sits on the cot next to her husband and son.

"Did he get it right today?" she asks her husband.

"Almost," he replies, "He's still messing up on the 'eye' part."

She looks sternly down into her son's eyes. "You must remember it correctly, sweetheart. The end is the most important part of the story."

"But, mom," the boy says, pouting out his lower lip, "I remember the original song all the way. How come that isn't enough?"

"Because, baby, the song means nothing if you don't understand the words. If you forget what the lyrics mean, you won't remember the story the song tells. You do like the story about the warrior, right?"

"Yeah…but I don't really get the end part," he admits, looking down sheepishly.

"You will one day, sweetheart, you will."

She pats his leg as he gives her a hopeful look. "Can we sing it now, momma?"

"Yes, baby, we can."

The father picks up the boy and places him on his mother's lap, watching on in silence as she starts to sing in a Native American tongue. Picking up a wooden flute, he plays along with her singing, the two of them filling the small tent with a haunting tune. Pausing, he leans down and whispers into the boy's ear, smiling.

"You're not going to let her sing it all by herself, are you?" he says.

The boy smiles and shakes his head from side to side. Picking up in time with his mother, he sings along with her in perfect unison, never missing a syllable despite the complex language of the song.


	2. Part 1

_**Part 1**_

A hand scribbles away frantically on a sheet of paper as the song once started by a boy's voice now finishes with that of a man's. Smiling both in satisfaction and disbelief, Riley Poole puts down his pencil, bright blue eyes flashing in excitement.

"That's it!" he exclaims, exasperated, "Who'll be in the spotlight now, Benny Boy?"

* * *

Benjamin Gates leans over his desk, carefully scanning over an old parchment with a magnifying glass. Every once in a while, he stops to scribble some notes down before continuing with the delicate process of decoding his most recent puzzle. His hand pauses above an encryption whose letters are overlapping one another in a near-impossible-to-read fashion. As his face gets closer and closer to the magnifying glass, his cell phone suddenly rings on the desk right beside his ear. Startled, he drops the magnifying glass and squeezes his eyes tight in annoyance. Looking at the caller id on his phone, he sighs and picks it up.

"Riley," he scolds, "Do you know how close I was just now to cracking a particularly difficult code?"

Riley, just hopping out of his red Ferrari in the parking lot of a lone office building, simply grins from ear to ear. "Code schmode," he mocks, brushing off the callousness in Ben's voice.

"Code schm-? Riley, this important! It's for the President!" Ben explains for possibly the one-hundredth time to the younger man, one hand pressing on his forehead.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Riley says, turning his key in the lock and pushing open the office door. "Listen, while you've been running around playing the President's personal puppet boy-"

"-Riley-"

"Sorry, sorry – I meant to say man servant."

Ben sighs and lets that comment slide, deciding it best not to further elongate the conversation.

Grinning, as he could hear Ben's sigh through the phone, Riley sits down at his desk and opens up his laptop. "Anyway," he says, "while you've been busy decoding the alien alphabet or whatever top-secret-can't-tell-my-best-friend-about-it nonsense that it is, _I_ have been busy making the next biggest find _ever. _I mean, whatever it is you're working on, this is gonna blow its mind. Its gonna blow your mind, and Abigail's mind, and your dad's mind, and the President's mind – heh, maybe after this I can be a Presidential puppet, too."

Ben sighs again and picks up the magnifying glass, hovering it over the jumble of letters. "Does this have to do with whatever secret I'm-getting-back-at-my-friend-so-I'm-not-giving-him-any-details project that you've been working on for like eight months?"

"Uh, that would be the one, yeah."

Looking up again from the parchment again, Ben realizes Riley is succeeding in sucking him in, "…Okay, I admit, so now you've got me curious-"

"-Yes! There's the old Ben we all know and love-"

"-so, why don't you tell me what your big discovery is."

"…Uh….no."

Riley's now beaming grin slowly begins to droop as he is met with mere silence on the other end of the line. "Ben? Still there?" he asks, concerned.

"…Riley, you are unbelievable. You interrupt my work to brag about some grand discovery just to tell me you're not actually going to tell me about it? I don't really have time for games right now."

"No, no, no, no, it's not a game, Ben, not a game. I just, I can't really tell you over the phone. I gotta show you in person. I promise, you won't be disappointed – just come meet me at the office after you get off, all right? You're off in like an hour and a half?"

Ben glances up at the clock on the wall with a confused look. It is, in fact, about 4:30 and he's technically supposed to be out of the lab by 6:00. Technically.

"Riley, I'll see what I can do," he says, looking back down at his parchment.

"No. Huh-uh. You're getting off at six and you're not blowing me off this time. You've done that twice in the last three weeks."

"Ah, so is that what this is really about, Riley? If you're that lonely, why don't you just take out your girlfriend?"

Riley now looks at the phone, perplexed, before continuing.

"And you said I was unbelievable? Ben, you never even took the time to find out what her name was, first of all, and second of all, she dumped me like two months ago. You're always busy, Abigail's got that big thing down at the museum she's been working on, and despite the fact that I now work security tech for several branches of the government, they gave me an office far far away from anybody…by a river…in the middle of nowhere. I didn't even know there was a 'middle of nowhere' in DC."

"That's because you irritate people with your incessant rambling."

"Yes, admittedly true, but while my utter isolation (which I'm sure is not healthy, by the way) does need to be discussed at some point, it actually has nothing to do with tonight. I'm serious, Ben, I hit the jack-pot this time and if you're not excited about this when you see it, then the Ben Gates I used to know truly is dead."

There's another long pause at Ben's end of the phone. Riley leans back in his chair, holding his breath. When Ben finally breathes an "okay" into the phone, Riley pumps his arm up and down in victory.

"I knew it, Ben, I knew you'd come around. I'll just hang here at the office, then, 'til you drop by. Six, right?"

"I'll try."

"Don't try, Ben, do. It's not that hard – look at clock, see the 'six,' put away secret project, hop in car, drive to Riley's office. See? Simple."

"Alright, alright. I'll be there as soon as I get off."

"At six."

"Yes, Riley, at six."

Riley starts to say something else, but Ben pretends he doesn't notice and hangs up the phone. He shakes his head before trying to regain the focus he lost with Riley's call.


	3. Part 2

_**Part 2**_

_**A/N: **So I'm finding that I'm having an unbelievably difficult time not slipping into full-on screenplay mode. I so desperately want to write in the typical camera directions (zoom in, pan over, etc) and general scene directions (like voice overs, cut to's, and fade outs). So, again, I apologize if this quasi-screenplay is difficult to read and for the lack of detail. Just try to read it as if you were reading an actual screenplay – the actors and director have a lot of creative control when they go into filming so just try to imagine what they would do if handed the script!_

_

* * *

_Abigail Chase is sitting in an auditorium looking on with an irritated expression at a slide show presentation regarding the Cibola findings. She starts as a hand taps her on the shoulder and she looks back to see Ben's mother, Emily Appleton, leaning towards her.

"For such an exciting find, this presentation is amazingly dull," the elder woman says.

Abigail stifles a laugh. "You read my mind. So what do we do about it?"

"Well, for starters, locate the person that made this poor excuse for historical entertainment and fire them."

"The _people_ that made this are historical major students from the local college, most of whom are interns at the museum. The board thought it would be good to show off their work to the community. So, the question is, what do we fire them from?"

"Oh, I don't know, the college, the entertainment industry, the state?-"

"-Emily!" Abigail hisses, smiling, barely able to keep her voice in a whisper.

"The point is, Abigail, that these are _history_ students, not professionals at making a good quality presentation. I don't want my son's findings to wind up boring people to sleep every day. It should play out more exciting. Someone from the Discovery Channel network should be handling this."

"Yes, you're absolutely right. By the looks on the faces of the other board members over there," Abigail nods to her right towards a small group of men and women seemingly falling asleep in their chairs, "I don't think we have much to worry about. At least we gave the kids a shot to-"

Abigail cuts herself off as she feels her phone vibrate in the little black purse on her lap. She pulls it out to see she has a text message.

"Is that from Ben? If it is, tell him to send me a text, too. I could use some relief from this drabble."

"No, sorry, it's not from Ben. It's from Riley. He's asking if Ben has stopped by here at all."

"Ah, poor boy. Has Ben stood him up again? I'll have to have a talk with him about that. Next thing you know, he'll be standing you up, and I won't have my son neglecting his girlfriend like that. I've been down that road before."

"Oh, I'm sure it's just a phase. Ben's been really stressed lately with this project the President has him working on. It was like the pieces were falling together so well and he was so excited; then all of a sudden, he ran into a big brick wall. He's been stuck for weeks on this one encryption, and he can't even ask Riley or me for help on it. Honestly, I think that's why he's been a little distant – he's afraid of spilling the beans to us and getting everyone in trouble."

"Well, he could at least make a phone call if he's not going to show up for his engagements. It's common courtesy."

"Normally, yes, but you know what would happen if he called Riley – he'd never get back to his work. Riley's not good at taking 'no' for an answer."

"That's true, but he should have at least left _you_ a message saying he was going to be working late. It's past seven-thirty already."

Abigail responds to Emily as she is sending a reply back to Riley, informing him that she hasn't seen Ben.

"Yeah, but we aren't supposed to be out of here for another hour. He'll send word right around the time we walk out of this borefest if he's going to be later than that. He knows better than to not send word to _me_." She gives Emily a wink, who grins in motherly approval, in return. She pats Abigail on the shoulder before sitting back in her chair, rolling her eyes as the monotonous narrator on the slide presentation fails miserably at making what could have been a good pun funny in the slightest.


	4. Part 3

_**Part 3**_

Riley thumps his fingers on his desk as he glances over, once again, at his phone. He sighs and rests one elbow on the desktop, plopping his chin into his palm. He grudgingly swirls his finger around on the touchpad of his laptop, half-consciously engaging in a game of online chess.

"And you lose," he mumbles, not at all surprised by his victory as his computer brightly displays "CHECKMATE! YOU WIN!" all over the screen.

He is about to start another game when he hears the anticipated jingle on his phone. Eagerly, he picks it up and flips it open, only to be disappointed to see that it's only Abigail texting him back:

_Riley, haven't heard from Ben. I'll let you know when I do. And don't call him a million times. That only keeps him later._

"Oops, too late," Riley muses, and pushes Ben's number on his speed dial yet again. He hits the "speaker on" option and rests the phone on the desk in front of him, arms crossed behind his head as he contemplates what type of wise crack he should leave on Ben's voicemail this time. As he waits for Ben's voice to deliver its away message, he sees the lights from a car pull past his window. Excited, he leaps up out of the chair and rushes to the door, leaving his phone still running on the desk. He just about reaches the door when it swings inward in front of him. He jumps back, narrowly avoiding its impact, and is greeted with two large men in black suits pushing past him.

"Hey, you can't just walk in here," he starts to protest, but then stops as the men flash FBI badges in his face. "Uh…I thought you guys just called when you needed me…"

An older woman with short fading red hair and a light beige, very well-fitted business skirt-suit glides in through the door, shutting it behind her. "We need you for a very special project this time, Mr. Poole. We didn't want to risk calling you about it in the case that somebody bugged your phone."

"Bugged my? Why would somebody bug my phone?" Riley half-laughs, "There's like ten people total that even know I work for the government…or at least there were only supposed to be that many – including my friends. Who are you?"

"We were…granted special permission by our superiors to seek you out in person, Mr. Poole – may I call you Riley?"

Riley simply nods.

"Very good," the woman continues, "Riley, we need you to come with us for your next mission."

"Why? Has my office finally been compromised?" Riley replies sarcastically, "I mean, if that's the case, it only took your guys like a year plus some to finally track down my base of operations."

"That's right, Riley, our tech crew finally tracked your software, and just when we finished designing a new security program, too. You'll have to try to hack into it from a new location."

"So…it's not really a 'very special project,' then - just a regular project in a new location…"

Riley looks at the woman with his head cocked, waiting to see her reaction to the fact that he caught her fumble. She shakes her head, holding her palms up as she shrugs.

"You are too clever for your own good," she grins, moving slowly towards Riley. He backs away from her, moving back around behind his desk, shifting his gaze from the woman to the two men in suits who remain still on either side of the room. He also risks a quick glance down at his phone and realizes it's still recording onto Ben's voicemail.

"Who are you, really?" He asks the woman.

"No need to be alarmed, Riley. My name is Elizabeth Drake, and you were right, I'm not here on a job from the FBI. I wrongfully thought I could trick you into helping me locate something if you thought it was for the agency. These men _are_ actually agents, however – they're good friends of mine. They helped me find you."

Still skeptical, Riley couldn't help but feed his curiosity. "...help you find what, exactly?"

"What do you think, Riley? You are a treasure hunter, and a good one from what I read in your book, correct?"

"You read my book?" Riley asks, a bit more relaxed.

"Yes, and it was very…intriguing. So please…will you help me?"

As she speaks, Elizabeth places her hands on the desk in front of Riley, leaning forward provocatively. Trying to avoid a full-on peepshow down her blouse, Riley looks down uncomfortably at her hands and his gaze is pulled towards a large golden square ring adorning her right hand. As he stares at the hieroglyphics etched into its surface, his vision begins to swirl and a long-forgotten memory slams into the forefront of his mind.

* * *

_Trying to keep his breathing calm, the young boy peers out through a crack in the supply crate he's hidden himself in. He had hidden in it to avoid being sent back to the tent by his parents – he much preferred running around the excavation site to studying alone. He hears his mother's voice, then his father's, and he makes his breathing even quieter. He is determined not to be discovered this time._

_As he peeks out of the box, he can just see the waist-high forms of his parents. His father's hands are encircling his mother's waist protectively and both are backing up into the smaller tunnel on the opposite end of the room. The boy doesn't understand why, for that tunnel is the newest one and the support beams haven't been set in place just yet. Even he knows it is too dangerous to go exploring down that way._

_"You don't have to do this," his father's voice demands, "We won't tell anyone about it. Just let us go."_

_The boy strains to see who his father is talking to, but the form hasn't moved far enough into the room for him to see. His mother lets out a sob and tries to push her way around his father._

_"Please," she cries, "Our son – he needs us. He's only five!"_

_Suddenly a hand holding out a gun appears in the boy's vision, the fingers rapidly pulling the trigger. No sound comes from the barrel, no more sounds come from the boy's parents, and the boy, in return, forces himself to remain equally quiet despite the scream that is threatening to pour out of him. He is young, but smarter than his age implies, and understands that to reveal himself, now, is to meet the same fate as his parents. He watches on in horrified silence as the hand holding the gun, the hand sporting the beautiful gold ring, drops out of sight._

_

* * *

_

Shaking off the shock of the vision, Riley looks up into Elizabeth's eyes. Any humor or curiosity remaining in his own eyes is replaced with stunned anger.

"You…you killed my parents," he forces out.

"Oh dear," Elizabeth casually states, pushing her weight back off the desk, "I didn't know you saw that. Well, I had my suspicions, but I didn't think you'd remember if you had. Oh well, I guess we'll have to do this the hard way."

Without hesitation, she pulls out a pistol with a silencer, similar to the one Riley remembered in his flashback. He doesn't even have time to react before she pulls the trigger, but is surprised to see that a small dart flies out of the barrel as opposed to the bullet he was expecting. He has time to shoot Elizabeth a confused look before his legs give out beneath him. As he crumples past the desk, he slides his hand over his cell phone, pulling it down with him. To Elizabeth, it merely looks as if Riley is just trying to grip onto the desk for support. As he lands on the floor, phone falling beside his head, he checks the message recording time and realizes he has just enough time for one quick message to Ben.

"Remember Edison," he whispers as the drug in his system takes full effect, pulling him into utter darkness.


	5. Part 4

_**Part 4**_

Ben sits back at his desk, staring down at his notes with a smug, half-grin plastered on his face. He glances up at the clock on the wall, and realizing what time it is, a look of panic crosses his features. He reaches for the phone just as it starts to ring and he pauses, his hand hovering just over it. Closing his eyes in defeat, he picks it up and presses it to his ear.

"Hon, I'm _so_ sorry, I meant to call but-" he starts

"-but you lost track of the time?" Abigail's voice finishes.

"Uh, yeah…"

"So,-"

"Oh, here we go," Ben mumbles under his breath.

"-despite how many times I'm sure Riley has called you tonight, since you blew him off, _again, _it never occurred to you to check the clock once in a while?"

"Well, actually, Riley's last call was over an hour ago and at the time-"

"I was still at work, I know. That would have been right after I sent him a text telling him to stop bugging you. This is the thanks I get for that?"

Ben pauses for a minute, "Since when does Riley actually listen to you?"

"Apparently since tonight. So, since you took all this extra time working on your special project, tell me it was at least worth it."

Ben smiles, relieved that Abigail isn't pushing the late issue. "Actually, it was. I finally figured out the code, Abigail. It was so much simpler than I was trying to make it out to be. Now all I have to do is match this translation with the others and find out what the right order is, and I'll have it. I'm so close…"

"You're getting that distant sound in your voice, which means you're looking down at your work right now, aren't you?"

Ben pushes the papers away from him, "No…"

"Ben, stop. It's late, you need to call Riley back and apologize, and you need to come home. Your work will still be there in the morning."

"But, Abigail-"

"NOW, Ben."

"…All right…You're not going to make me actually listen to all of Riley's messages this time, are you? You know he fills up all the time he possibly can on each one, right?"

"First of all, that's your fault for setting the record time to maximum-"

"I didn't want to cut off a message if it was from the President-"

"-and second of all, that's your penance for ignoring him. And don't you dare try to say you listened to them when you didn't. You know you're not a very good liar."

"I know," Ben sighs, "I'll see you in a little bit, then."

"Okay. I love you, Ben."

"Love you, honey."

Ben hangs up and stares at the phone for a while. He pushes the speed dial button for Riley and waits. Surprisingly, he gets Riley's voice mail.

"Riley – Ben – I guess you finally gave up, huh? Or you're really mad at me this time since you didn't answer. Are you really mad? Anyway, I'm sorry, I was just so close to solving this thing and you know how long I've been working on it. I did it, though, I solved the code. Now it'll just be a matter of days before I can maybe solve the whole darn puzzle. Then things should go back to normal, I promise. I'll help you with whatever you need after that, okay?...Give me a call back when you get this."

He hangs up and is about to put his phone in his pocket when he changes his mind. Abigail is right – he'd never get away with not listening to Riley's messages. She'd know somehow. He dials his voicemail and sets the phone on his desk on speaker, just as Riley had done previously, and starts the process of filing away his work.

"Beeeeeeennnnnnnaaaaaaaaa. Hey, this is Riley – you know, that incredibly handsome, unbelievably beyond smart, funny guy that you _used _to hang out with? Hey, remember how you said you were gonna to get off _at six_ and drive over here to my office? Do you remember that? Yeah, cause that happened like two hours ago, and I gave you some extra time, and you're still not here. You really, really, need to come down here, though. I mean it – it's super important. In fact, it's so important, that just to show you how much I want you to come down here, the rest of my messages are _not_ going to be super long. See, I'm willing to do that for you, Ben. All you gotta do is put your stuff away, and LEAVE THE OFFICE. All right. I'm going now. If you're not here in fifteen minutes, I'm calling you back. Bye."

"One down, five more to go," Ben mumbles to himself as he sorts through his paperwork.

"Ben, it's been fifteen minutes. On the dot. I don't see your car out front. I'll call back."

"Huh, he actually did leave a short message," Ben says, and continues to listen in disbelief as the remaining messages from Riley continue to be short and sweet, although still obnoxious. He finishes cleaning up his work area just as Riley's last message starts to play. He hears silence, then the sound of the door flinging open.

"Hey, you can't just walk in here…" Riley's voice.

Ben freezes, listening intently as the message continues to play out.

"So…it's not really a 'very special project,' then, just a regular project in a new location…"

"Good catch, Riley," Ben mutters, rushing out the door with the phone up to his ear. Something wasn't right about this woman, and obviously Riley knew it, too, or at least he seemed to until she mentioned reading his book.

"Don't fall for that, Riley." Ben can practically hear Riley smiling through the phone.

The woman speaks some more, then there's a moment of complete silence before Riley utters something that makes Ben's heart practically stop in his chest.

"You…you killed my parents."

Ben is running to his car, now, and just gets to the door when he hears the faint whistle of a silenced gun. "Oh god, no, Riley," Ben whispers, clutching the phone to his ear. He hears a muffled _thud_, which he can only assume is Riley falling to the ground. The last thing he hears on the message is a faint whisper from Riley.

"Remember Edison," he says, before the beep.

"No – no, no, no," Ben cries, for once wishing his inbox could record even longer messages. He jumps into his car and peels out of the parking lot, dialing Abigail.

"Come on, come on, come on," Ben says impatiently, driving a little recklessly towards Riley's office.

"Ben," Abigail starts, "If you're calling to tell me you're still not done-"

"Abigail, something's happened to Riley, something bad. I need you to call, I don't know, whoever you can think of and get them down to Riley's office. I'm heading over there now."

"Wait, slow down – what happened to Riley?"

"I – I don't know. I think someone shot him. God, Abigail, what if he's dead? What if he's dead because _I_ wasn't there when I supposed to be?"

Abigail wants to ask more questions, but she can hear the tires squealing on Ben's car as he takes a turn, so she decides to act just as quickly. "Okay," she merely says, "It'll be okay. I'll call the cops and have them meet you down there."

"And Sadusky."

"Right. I'm on it."

Ben hangs up and tosses his phone on the passenger seat. He speeds up even more, praying under his breath that Riley is okay.


	6. Part 5

_**Part 5**_

_**A/N: **So, while before I was struggling with my screenwriter side, now I seem to be struggling with my novelist side. I want readers to "see" this like they were watching a movie, meaning they can't really know what the characters are thinking until those characters speak their thoughts out loud. I keep having to erase paragraphs where I accidentally write what's on the character's mind! I also keep slipping into past tense mode like I would write into a novel, but again, that takes away from the whole "watching a movie" feel. I need the readers to see what's happening as it's happening, meaning I have to keep going back and correcting my verbiage to present tense. Hopefully I've managed to catch all those little mistakes! I did decide to put a little more detail into describing scenery and character action, though, so I hope that helps in portraying my vision a little better. Thanks to those who have read and especially who have reviewed so far!

* * *

_

Ben pulls up to Riley's office and sees the red Ferrari in its usual spot, just showing from the backside of the building. There are no lights on in the office and the door is shut. Surprisingly, it's actually locked when Ben tries to push it open. He stands back and kicks the door in on his first try, fumbling for the light switch. He finds it, but the lights don't come on when he flips the switch.

"Riley!" he yells into the darkness. No response. Ben curses under his breath and runs back to his car to grab his flashlight. He can hear sirens in the distance.

Rushing back into the office, he turns on the flashlight and is startled to see that everything inside has been practically torn apart. There are no drawers left in desks, bookshelves are lying flat on the floor, papers are strewn everywhere, and anything breakable – including all the light fixtures – has been smashed. Stepping carefully through the debris, Ben looks into the back storage room and the room that Riley had declared his "break room," despite the fact that he had the entire office building to himself most of the time so it was completely unnecessary. Everything in both those rooms is in shambles, as well, including Riley's big screen TV and his console games.

Flustered, Ben returns to the front office and looks around the areas where he thought Riley may have fallen. He shines the flashlight across the desk and directs the beam across the floor in various places.

"…no blood…" he realizes out loud, and the tension in his body relaxes just a little.

Red and blue lights suddenly begin glaring through the windows. Ben stands up and greets the officers, as well as Detective Sadusky, as they come through the door.

"You didn't touch anything, did you?" Sadusky asks.

"No. No, I kicked in the door but didn't touch anything with my hands…oh, except the light switch. I touched the light switch."

"Hear that? Disregard Ben's prints on the light switch," Sadusky orders the officers and investigators that are entering the building, then turns back to Ben who is in somewhat of a daze. "Ben, how did you know Riley was in trouble?"

"He, uh, he left a message on my voicemail."

"Okay, I'll need to listen to that."

"Yeah, sure, sure. Here."

Ben hands Sadusky the phone and swipes a hand down his face, resting it over his mouth. He watches as men and women swarm around Riley's office, looking for any clues as to the whereabouts of his young friend.

"Ben!" Abigail comes rushing through the parking lot to the door. Ben runs out to her before she reaches the doorstep and hugs her tightly.

"There's no blood, Abigail, no blood," he breathes into her ear as he holds her.

"That's good, right? I mean, that means they didn't kill him, right?"

"Not yet, anyway," Detective Sadusky interrupts as he walks over to the embracing couple. "This woman, Elizabeth Drake, she needs him for something, and I'm guessing it has to do with his parents. There's obviously something she was looking for that Riley has, and I'll bet she'll keep him alive until she gets it. What did Riley say, Ben? At the end of the message?"

"He said 'Remember Edison.'"

"That's what I thought, and I'm thinking someone in the room at the time must have heard him say it, too, which is why they smashed all the light bulbs. It would make sense to the outside person that Riley would have been referring to Edison's invention, but I'm also thinking that it has a different meaning for you, or else he wouldn't have left you that message..."

Ben sits down on the doorstep and stares off into the distance. He looks as if he's on the verge of remembering, but just can't seem to grasp it. Abigail watches Ben in silence, hugging her arms around her body. She is still wearing the sleeveless black dress she had worn to the presentation and is starting to get cold, but she doesn't complain.

"Failures…." Ben mumbles.

"What was that?" Sadusky prompts.

"I once told Riley what Edison said about his failures, and Riley turned around and had Ian's men use the same quote on me just before I escaped you guys during the Templar Treasure expedition."

"So what does that have to do with him being kidnapped?" Abigail softly asks, trying to help Ben think.

Ben stands up and faces her. "You know that project Riley's been working on all these months? He wanted me to come over tonight because he said he found something huge. I bet whatever he found, this woman also wanted." Ben starts to pace back and forth. "Now Riley, being a little paranoid as you know, wouldn't have kept anything he really wanted to hide in an obvious spot." Ben interrupts himself to ask Sadusky a question, "Did they take his computer?"

"I didn't see a computer on the desk, so I'm guessing they did."

Ben paces again, waving his hands slightly as he speaks. "Right, he probably assumed that'd be the first place someone would look if they were trying to steal his research, but they won't find anything there – they won't be able to hack into his system on their own and he won't help them, either, if he can help it. He's gonna make them think everything they want is in that computer, giving us time to find where he really hid his research."

"So, where did he really hide it?" Abigail asks.

"A success among failures," Ben thinks out loud, tapping his lips with his fingers, then suddenly points them at Abigail, "His storage unit!"

"What storage unit?" Sadusky asks.

"Riley couldn't bring himself to trash all the unsold copies of his books, so he rented a storage unit on the other side of town to 'bury' them in. He called it his book graveyard – performed a eulogy and everything once all the boxes were inside."

"A success hidden amongst hundreds of failed books – makes sense," Sadusky says, "Ben, if you want to go do your treasure-hunter thing down there, I'll wrap things up over here. I took the liberty of making a copy of the voicemail message, so you can have your phone back." He tosses Ben the cell phone. "I'll also look into this Elizabeth Drake person, and see if I can dig up Riley's past. That might take me some time, though – I believe he was one of those kids that got bounced around in the system quite a bit."

"Yeah, that's what he said," Ben replies, "As soon as you find anything-"

"-I'll give you a buzz, and you better do likewise. The more people and more angles we have working on this, the sooner we can find him."

Sadusky turns to head back into the building when Ben calls out to him again. He looks back expectantly.

"About the supposed FBI agents that were here with Drake?" Ben asks.

"Yeah, I'll be looking into that, too. I hope for everyone's sake they weren't real agents."

"And how she found out Riley had a breakthrough in is research?"

"Well, she obviously wasn't tailing him or else she'd know right away his research wasn't here. My guess - though they'd have been careful to remove the evidence - she bugged his phone."


	7. Part 6

_**Part 6**_

"You bugged my phone," Riley says again, allowing one quick laugh to escape him at the sheer irony of the statement.

"Yes, well, I practically told you as much back at your office," Elizabeth smiles, sitting on the desk in front of Riley. He is tied to a computer chair behind the desk, hands taped together behind his back. The room appears to be some sort of office basement space, as old computer equipment lines the concrete walls and various pieces of old office furniture rest in different corners of the room. There is a wooden staircase in the corner behind Elizabeth's back that Riley keeps glancing at. He can also see that off to his left there appears to be a small utility closet as well as, surprisingly, a bathroom.

"Looking for escape routes?" Elizabeth asks, "Because you won't find any. I'm afraid the only way out is up those stairs behind me, and there's always a guard posted at the top."

"Nah, I'm not really an 'escaper.' I'm more the damsel-in-distress type – you know, the one that waits around to be rescued? But, hey, I couldn't help but notice the bathroom over there…seems kind of out-of-place. How many people, exactly, have you held hostage down here?"

Elizabeth smiles. "Feel honored that you're the first. This used to be a lab, actually, so naturally a restroom would be necessary for researchers working 'round the clock. Fortunately for me, it also serves as a perfect place to house you, my special guest."

"Oh, is that what they're calling hostages nowadays?...So how'd you bug my phone, anyway?"

"Oh, those men that were with me earlier really do work for the FBI, amongst others in various government branches. It's amazing how the promise of a little power and lots of money can motivate some people. They were able to plant the bug in mere seconds while you were walking through the security checkpoint for your briefing with the CIA head of security. How quickly did you hack into his program, by the way?"

"Twenty-one point three minutes – I hit a bit of a snag creating a double-back door that his tracking software couldn't nail down."

"Incredible," Elizabeth says, shaking her head, "Your talents are underused."

"That's what I keep telling people," Riley says, arching his eyebrows up and cocking his head slightly to the side.

"You can hack into virtually any system in the world, and without people being able to track you down. I can only imagine how frustrated those head agents must have been to discover their people couldn't locate your little riverside office time after time. I'm sure they must have assumed they would have had to relocate your work station several times by now."

"Yeah, well, I was better at my job than they thought."

"So, let me get this straight – your job is to hack into government security systems, leave some mark that you succeeded, I'm sure, prevent yourself from being discovered, and - then what?"

"Then, I go meet with the department head, tell him - or her, gotta be pc – exactly how I got in and what they need to do to prevent people like me from getting in in the future."

"But why? What do you get out of that?"

"Uh, I get _paid_ to _legally _hack into government systems. If that, in itself, isn't cool enough for you, then you should know that I'm paid on salary. I get a ton of money to spend a few hours of my life here and there helping out the government and can pretty much do whatever I want outside of that. Dream job."

"That's just it, Riley. You don't even need a job. You could hack into banks all over the world and always be one step ahead of the law. What's stopping you from just taking whatever you want whenever you want?"

"Ah – that would be a little thing called 'morals,' which you obviously have none of."

"Now that," Elizabeth says, shaking her finger at Riley as she stands, "is exactly what got your parents killed – their morals. You take after them more than you know."

"I take that as a compliment," Riley says, nodding, "even if you did mean it as an insult."

Elizabeth turns and heads for the staircase. Riley shuts his eyes and lets out a frustrated breath.

"Wait," he calls after her, and she looks back at him with her hand poised on the stair rail.

"Going to tell me what I want to know that easily?" she smirks.

"No, I just – can you tell me about them? My parents?"

Elizabeth purses her lips in a tight grin. "Now, now, Riley, don't assume I'm that stupid. You were rather quick to spout off to me everything about your job, something I'm sure you were sworn not to do to a possible enemy of the state. Granted you've probably figured out that since I'm after your find, I'm not a terrorist nor am I after just fortune. I want my name in the history books; otherwise I would just torture you until you hacked into whatever government system I wanted. You told me everything about what you do because you're stalling for time. Sorry to disappoint, Riley, but the damsel-in-distress is not going to be rescued this time, no matter how much time you waste."


	8. Part 7

_**Part 7**_

Ben and Abigail are standing outside of a storage unit. They wait impatiently as a man fumbles with keys at the door.

"I'm sorry," the man says, "I'm a little tired. I didn't expect to have to come down in the middle of the night, ya know?"

He finds the right key and turns it in the lock, pushing the door in. "There ya go – I hope you find what you need in there. What'd this kid do, anyway, that had the FBI calling my house this late?"

"Nothing," Ben replies as he steps around the man to peer into the storage unit, "He's missing."

"Awe, that's too bad, seemed like a nice kid. Well, I'll leave ya to do whatever it is that you're doin' in here, then. Make sure you lock this up behind ya."

Nodding, Abigail steps into the storage unit behind Ben. It's bigger than it looks from the outside, and it's full of boxes stacked along every wall from the floor to the ceiling.

"Is there a light?" Ben asks. Abigail runs her hands along the walls on either side of the door until she finds a switch. As she flips it, fluorescent light hits every corner of the room, nearly blinding her and Ben. They wait for their eyes to adjust before they begin poking around at the many boxes.

"How are we going to know which box he hid his research in?" Abigail asks.

"Well, I imagine it must be one not too far from reach. These boxes are heavy, so he wouldn't want to keep having to shift them around every time he was doing some work. Why don't you start opening boxes at the front and I'll start in the back."

Turning to the first box on her left, Abigail opens the lid and pulls out the first couple volumes of books, flipping through the pages a little in case Riley may have hid something inside them. She sees Ben doing the same on the other end of the room.

"It's really kind of sad, you know," she talks as she works, "He put so much work into writing this just to have it blow up in his face. What's he going to do with all these?"

"Well," says Ben, setting a box down on the floor so he can open the next one down in the stack, "I think his goal was to hang on to these until he 'got a little more famous.' He figured once more people knew his name, they might actually start buying the book."

Abigail smiles, "Ever persistent and ever hopeful…" She frowns, then changes the subject, "Ben, what do you suppose any of this has to do with Riley's parents?"

Ben shrugs. "I don't have a clue. We'll have to wait to see what Sadusky finds on that. Riley said he's been in foster care as far back as he can remember."

"Well apparently that woman sparked _some_ memory," Abigail sighs, "and not a pleasant one."

The two continue looking through boxes in silence. Ben moves a little more to the center of the room and as he tries to pull a box down off a particularly high stack, he stumbles backwards. Expecting to be braced by the boxes behind him, he looks very surprised when they merely crush and shift beneath his weight. He falls flat on his back onto a desk hidden amongst the boxes and lies there looking up at the ceiling, dazed. Abigail rushes to him and pulls the full box of books he his still holding off his chest.

"Are you okay?" she asks, concerned, helping Ben to his feet.

"Yeah," he grunts, "Wasn't expecting that."

"Well," she grins, looking at the desk, "At least you found Riley's work station."

She pulls open the single desk drawer, only to find that it merely contains a small notebook with nothing written on the pages and several pencils.

"There are pages ripped out of that," Ben says, looking over her shoulder. He reaches down and pulls out the notebook. "Several, by the looks of it, and you can see the indents in this front page, here, from whatever he wrote on the last one."

Ben grabs a pencil from the drawer and begins to lightly shade-in the page. What seems to be a random jumble of words scrawled across the paper begins to appear.

"It looks like he was just brainstorming," Abigail offers.

Ben reads some of the words off the page, "Bog, diamonds - here, this one says Chimney Rock."

"Do you think he found something there?"

"Maybe, but there's obviously a lot more to it. He circled this word, here, a few times."

He points down at a deeply-etched circle in the bottom right corner of the page.

"What did he circle?" Abigail asks, squinting down at the paper.

"It looks like it says, 'warrior's eye.'"

"What does that mean?"

Ben shrugs and leans back on the desk, staring back up at the ceiling. "Riley wouldn't have sent me here just to find scribbles in a notebook," he says more to himself than to Abigail. As he thinks, one of the fluorescent tubes in the center fixture of three lining the ceiling begins to flash and sputter. The other tube in the fixture is already burned out. Ben's absent look suddenly changes to one of focus as he looks harder at the light fixture, and he begins walking towards it.

"What is it?" Abigail asks.

"There's no dust on that fixture, none at all."

"So?"

"Look at the other two."

Abigail looks at the other two fixtures to see that they are, in fact, covered in dust. Ben pulls the chair out from under the desk and places it under the fixture in question, checking its stability before standing on it. He pulls the cover off the fixture, and squints at the harshness of the light. He reaches up and pulls out the tube that is burned out.

"Huh, it was a double-meaning, after all," Ben muses.

"What was?" Abigail asks.

"Riley's Edison clue – he was referring to light bulbs, as well, even though fluorescent tubing is kind of a stretch...this tube's a fake."

He hands it down to Abigail as he steps down off the chair. She sees that the ends of the tube have no sockets to plug into the fixture - just small, rubberized tips to keep the tube in place. She pulls on one of the caps, and it comes off easily in her hands. She looks inside to see a large, rolled-up piece of paper.

"Ben, it's here," she gasps.

"Here, bring it over to the desk."

She pulls out the rolled sheet and opens it up across the desk. Within the large sheet are several loose pieces of paper that spill out across it, some newer with Riley's handwriting scrawled all over them, and others very old-looking. Ben and Abigail begin sorting through the pages.

"Put all the old pages in this pile over here," Ben directs, "Some of these other sheets just look like Riley's notes and brainstorms – put those here."

"Ben," Abigail interrupts, "Some of Riley's notes have symbols drawn on the them." She holds up one sheet that is marked with a small "⌘" in the bottom right corner. She and Ben sift through the paper pile, finding that there are seven other sheets of paper that have small symbols drawn in the corners. Aside from the symbols, the papers seem to differ in no way from Riley's other seemingly-random notes. Words are simply strewn around across the papers that hold no real meaning as far as Ben and Abigail can decipher. The only thing they do know is that the same symbols drawn on Riley's notes correspond to ones he drew on a map of the United States, which was the large sheet of paper that had been previously rolled around all the smaller ones.

"Why didn't he make this more clear?" Abigail asks, trying to make some connection between the symbols on the map and those on the notes.

"Because he didn't think he had to. These were just notes serving as reminders to himself. I'm guessing the real key to all this is in his head somewhere, and he was expecting himself to be the one to travel to the places on this map."

"Well, do you suppose the symbols actually mean anything? I mean, why choose the ones he did?"

"Good question, and I'm sure they must mean something to Riley. They're all basic symbols you can find on a keyboard, so I'm thinking this is just a private code Riley made up for himself."

Abigail looks over the symbols again and realizes Ben is right. Aside from the "⌘", there's also "u", "$", "n", "*", ")", "∝", and one with two symbols: "‹3".

"Do you think this one is more important?" she asks, handing Ben the sheet that has the double symbol on it. He takes it and looks at its twin drawn on the map, which is placed on the northeastern coast of North Carolina. He looks back down at the paper, scanning over Riley's notes. He reads the random words aloud to Abigail.

"Lost warrior, vision quest, forgotten tears…John White," Ben's reading begins to pick up the pace as he seems to have hit on something, "Cittie of Raleigh, 1590 – Abigail, do you know what this is?"

"He's talking about the Lost Colony of Roanoke…" she whispers, "Ben, do you think he actually found it?"

Ben holds up the paper and points to a small word written in all caps close to the "‹3" symbol.

"CROATOA" Abigail reads.

"I think he found it," Ben concludes, then pauses, "and Drake knows it. The question is, using what Riley left us here, can _we_ find _him_?"


	9. Part 8

_**Part 8**_

_**A/N: **So, I'm typing this up on my Mac and just realized that on a PC, that first of Riley's symbols from the last chapter doesn't show up right. In case you're curious, the symbol is the little square with the loops at each corner that is on the "command" button of a Mac keyboard. Sorry about that!

* * *

_

Riley snaps his head up as a loud "slam!" echoes through the room. He blinks his eyes a few times before focusing on Elizabeth pressing one hand on his laptop on the desk in front of him. His eyes grow wide as he looks from his computer to Elizabeth.

"Oh, you didn't just-"

"Mishandling your precious computer is about to be the least of your worries right now," she snaps, obviously irritated.

"But my laptop," Riley whines.

"Shut up. I want to know how you did it," she demands, hovering over him.

"I thought you just told me to shut-"

His words are cut off as Elizabeth backhands him across the mouth, her gold ring splitting open his lip.

"Ow," Riley says, spitting blood onto the floor.

"Now is not the time to be smart," she says.

Riley opens his mouth to say something else, but apparently changes his mind as he closes it shut again. After a brief hesitation, he risks asking, "How did I do what, exactly?"

"My contacts tell me Sadusky is keeping a tight lid on his search for you. He's only working with a small team of his most trusted people, and rumor has it he suspects turncoats within the agency. How did he know?"

"What, you didn't listen to your own bug?" Riley asks, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.

"My bug?"

"On my phone – you said you had my phone bugged. My question to you is, what's the point in having a phone bugged if you don't have some guy listening in on it 24/7?"

Realization settles on Elizabeth's face. "Your phone was on in your office…"

"Bingo – tell the lady what she's won."

"That means Sadusky also knows-"

"-your name. Only a matter of time, now, before he catches up to you."

Riley can't keep the smug grin off his face. Elizabeth pulls her hand back again and Riley flinches away, closing his eyes. When the impact doesn't come, he opens one eye up and looks at her. She has moved away from him and is facing the opposite wall.

"No matter," she says, turning back around to face him now that she has visibly calmed herself, "I have other names. This just means I have to change my game plan a bit and pick up the pace."

She walks behind Riley and pulls out a knife.

"Whoa, hey!" he starts to protest, struggling against his bindings.

"Hold still," Elizabeth says, then cuts through the tape around Riley's wrists.

He slowly pulls his hands around in front of him, rubbing the sore spots where the tape was chaffing his skin. "…Should I be thanking you or should I be more scared?"

"That depends on how cooperative you are. Turn on your laptop."

"If you didn't break it," Riley mumbles under his breath. He opens it and is happy to see that there appears to be no damage from Elizabeth's slamming it onto the desktop. He obligingly types a password into the prompt box and turns the screen to face her.

"All yours," he says.

She leans over the computer and starts to click on file folders, just to be assaulted by images of skulls laughing at her bouncing around the screen. Her face freezes in anger, and without warning, she swings her hand hard enough into Riley's face this time to knock him down, chair and all, to the ground. A red welt speckled with small forming droplets of blood instantly begins to appear on his face where her ring came in contact with his cheek.

"Not cool," he moans, bringing his hand up to his face.

"You _will_ open the files I need." It is a demand, not a request.

"Awe, come on. I'm sure one of your cronies can crack my system. Oh wait, you only hired the big, dumb, muscly types that can't even man a bugged phone properly."

Elizabeth kicks him in the stomach with one of her pointed dress shoes. The impact is enough to knock the wind out of him, but he recovers fairly quickly from the blow. Coughing, he groans out, "You're gonna have to do better than that to get me to talk."

"Oh, honey, I'm just getting started, but I think you'll find my methods to be a little…different…than what you expect. I prefer you to be functional when I do manage to convince you – and I know I will – to show me where the Lost Colony is."

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think telling me right off the bat that you're not going to torture me too bad is _not_ the way you're supposed to go about getting information."

"My, your mouth does have a way of getting away from you, doesn't it? You must have gotten that from your foster parents – your real parents were never so obnoxious."

"I wouldn't know – someone shot them in front of me when I was five. I mean, what kind of sicko shoots a five-year-old kid's parents right in front of them?"

"You were not supposed to have been there," Elizabeth practically spits out. "You were always running around the dig site, getting in everyone's way, poking into things that you shouldn't have been touching. If you had stayed in your tent like you were supposed to, you would have thought your parents perished in a tragic cave-in like I led the rest of the world to believe. I may have even taken pity on you and raised you as my own - with proper manners - but instead I had to proclaim that you had died along with your parents. When you vanished I could only assume a child as young as you had gotten lost in the dessert. All this time, I thought you were dead, until I saw your picture in that pitiful excuse for a book you wrote. You look quite a bit like your father, you know…but," she sighs, placing a hand under Riley's chin, forcing him to look into her pale green eyes, "you have your mother's eyes. It's a little unnerving, actually." She pushes his face away none-too-gently and stands up straight, towering over him. "Tell me, Riley, how did you manage to wind up back in the States when I left you for dead at a dig site in Mexico?"

Riley's eyes begin to shift slowly back and forth as memories start to slowly trickle into his head. He speaks almost as if he's in a trance.

"...I stayed in the crate for hours, not knowing what to do and too scared to move…"

_Young Riley sits almost motionless within the wooden crate, watching as what little rays of sunshine that filter into the room begin to fade. No one has come or gone from the room for a long time, not since that woman left. He recognized the ring she wore – it was the woman who was always telling his mom and dad what to do. Riley never liked her much – she yelled at him a lot…_

"You used to have blond hair," Riley recalls, still lost in thought, "that you kept tied back in a ponytail and hidden under this ugly brown baseball cap. I _hated_ you, but that night, I felt nothing but fear…"

_Believing that no one else will be entering the room, and seeing how dark it has become, young Riley is about to finally crawl out of the crate when he suddenly hears voices coming towards him. He settles back to his cross-legged position where he can see out of the crack in the box, and watches as two men walk deliberately towards the tunnel where his parents lay dead. They are carrying pick axes. They disappear into the dark tunnel and moments later, Riley hears a rumbling sound. The men rush back out as a large dust cloud envelopes them from behind. Coughing, they race out of the room, screaming about a cave-in and how they barely made it out alive. The dust is getting into Riley's lungs and he knows he has to leave the room. Carefully, quietly, and using the dust cloud as his cover, he sneaks away from the ensuing chaos of men rushing around the dig site. He is able to slip back to his tent undetected where he grabs a backpack._

"I stuffed it full of canned foods and water, but I forgot the can opener and silverware. I remember later I had to smash the cans open on rocks and eat with my hands. I kept cutting my fingers…"

_Young Riley is sitting on a large rock, dirt caked to his body and small fingers bleeding, staring off across the Mexican dessert. He raises a water bottle to his lips, only to realize that it is empty. He throws it on the ground angrily, then looks ashamed as he picks it up and stuffs it down into his pack. "Momma said don't be a litter-bug," he says to himself, then slings the pack onto his shoulders and begins walking again._

"I was out there for a week and a half before I ran out of food and water. Last thing I remember, I found a little patch of shade somewhere and just collapsed in it…I don't know how long I was like that before they found me…"

_"Sweetheart, honey, are you okay?" a gentle voice asks._

_"Mommy?" Riley whispers._

_"No, baby, I'm not your mommy. Where is your mommy?" Then she turns to talk to someone behind her. "Steven, call for help, now!" She turns back to Riley. "Where are your parents, baby?"_

_Riley pauses for a long time. "I don't know," he says, looking confused._

_"Okay, that's okay. We'll help you find them. What's your name?"_

_"Riley."_

_"Riley, honey, do you know your last name?"_

_Riley thinks for a minute, then shakes his head weakly. "I can't remember," is all he can spit out before he falls back to sleep._

"Mary and Steve Poole – that's what their names were - a couple of traveling tourists just in the right place at the right time. Once I was healthy enough to be booted from the hospital, they pretended to be my parents long enough to get me back into the country. They were nice people, but didn't have the means or time to raise a child. I didn't remember my last name, so I kept theirs when I went into foster care." Riley seems to snap out of his daze at this point, looking directly at Elizabeth for the first time since he started remembering his tragic past. "The rest is pretty basic – I was kind of a problem child, probably because I was smarter than most of my foster parents. I got bounced around the system until I was old enough to get emancipated at sixteen. Went to college, got a job, got discovered by Ben, and the rest you know."

"Fascinating," Elizabeth says, shaking her head in disbelief, "but a bit overly dramatic. Wipe your eyes."

Riley reaches up to his face to discover he has, in fact, been crying. He quickly wipes away the tears and relaxes his head against the floor. "Can you pick me up off the floor now, please?"

"No, I think I'll let you lie there for awhile. I said I wouldn't hurt you too badly, but I didn't say you had a right to comfort."

She walks over to one of the other desks in the room and pulls out more tape. Returning to Riley, she leans over him and grabs his arms. He starts to fight against her when she pulls the knife back out. "I am not above cutting you," she threatens. He relaxes as she tightly winds the tape around his wrists again. When she's done, she pats him on the shoulder before standing up. "I'll be back in a little bit with a special surprise for you. Then you'll give me what I want." She smiles and as she passes by Riley's laptop, she sweeps it onto the floor with one hand. He hears something crack and cringes as she heads up the stairs.

"Oh, I hope you found my map, Ben, because I think I'm out of ways to stall," Riley says matter-of-factly, a hint of fear in his voice.


	10. Part 9

_**Part 9**_

Ben, Abigail, Emily, and Ben's father, Patrick, are all hovering around a desk in Patrick's house. They have Riley's map and notes spread everywhere, along with a few history books lying open around the room. Sunlight pours through a window and although Ben and Abigail have changed clothes from the previous night, the bags under their eyes reveal that neither have slept.

"Ugh, this is gibberish," Emily complains, rubbing her eyes.

"No, not entirely," Patrick says, "Read the notes on the marked sheets. Some of the words on them coincide with real places that are marked on this map. See, this one here with the asterisk on it mentions endless bridges of stone. The asterisk on the map is placed right about where Arches National Park is."

"You're right, dad," Ben says, picking up another of Riley's marked sheets. "But some of these are pretty vague. We're probably going to have to work backwards – look for places we think Riley may have been targeting, then look for anything written on the sheets that confirms we have the right place."

"And there's still the matter of the story," Abigail chimes in.

"Story?" Emily asks.

"Well, Riley keeps mentioning a warrior on several of these pages, and this page here mentions a talking salamander, and there's this page over here mentioning a trapped bear. There's a story hidden in this mess somewhere, and I'm guessing that's the part that Riley has in his head – it's the key to putting this whole thing together."

Ben looks through all the marked sheets, again, then picks up the other pages of notes that aren't marked with a symbol. He finds the one that he had done the graphite copy of the night before, and looks again at the words, "warrior's eye" encircled on it. Looking at the map, he suddenly picks up a pencil and traces through each symbol, connecting the dots. When he's finished, he leans back so everyone can see. With the symbols all connected, there is now what looks like a giant eye drawn across the country with one corner of the eye at Roanoke Island in North Carolina and the other corner at Arches National Park in Utah.

"The warrior's eye," Ben states.

"And somewhere in it lies the secret to the Cittie of Raleigh," Patrick quietly remarks.

"Cittie of Raleigh?" Sadusky's voice is heard entering the room, "Sorry, the door was open." Patrick shakes his head in a not-a-problem fashion. "That was the name of that colony of settlers that disappeared from Roanoke Island, right?"

"Yeah, they disappeared sometime between 1587 and 1590. One hundred and seventeen men, women, and children disappeared from the Roanoke Island colony in the three years between the birth of the governor's – "

"John White" Abigail interjects, remembering that Riley had made a point to jot the name down in his notes.

" – Right, John White was the appointed governor of the Cittie of Raleigh. Anyway, his daughter, Eleanor Dare, gave birth to his granddaughter on August 18, 1587. They named her Virginia after the queen, and she was the first English child ever born on American soil. Ten days later, White returned to England to get supplies for the colony, but ended up having to stay in England longer than he anticipated due to the invasion of the Spanish Armada. Exactly three years after Virginia's birth, White stepped foot on Roanoke Island, once again, only to discover that the Cittie of Raleigh was no more. Every one of those one hundred-seventeen colonists had disappeared and the only clues left behind were the carvings of the word 'Croatoan' on a fence post, and simply 'Cro' on a nearby tree. White was never able to find what happened to his daughter and granddaughter, or any of the other settlers. It's remained a mystery to this day."

"Until Riley Poole, or I should say Riley _Brenner,_ got his hands on it."

"Brenner?" Ben asks, "I thought you said it'd take a while to track down who Riley's real parents were."

"I pulled an all-nighter - and from the looks of it, so did you - and that's what I was able to come up with. I actually don't have any hard evidence yet to back up my theory, but I'm certain I'll be proven correct once all the paperwork on Riley's history in foster care comes back to me. On a hunch, I ran Riley's photo through the facial recognition software comparing it to anyone murdered around the time Riley first appeared in the foster system. I didn't come up with anything convincing, so I broadened the search to scan for couples that may have come up missing or suffered accidental deaths. There were hundreds, of course, that could have been potential candidates, so I narrowed the search down to just those couples who were known to have had a child around Riley's age at the time. There were only a few possibilities that the scanner could match Riley's photo to after that. One, in particular, caught my eye."

Sadusky drops the file folder he's been holding in his hands onto the desk. Ben opens it and pulls out a picture of the deceased couple in question, noting that Riley does, in fact, look very much like the man except for in the eyes. This man's eyes are dark brown, but Riley's are an inquisitive blue, a blue that matches those that the woman in the photographs is sporting. He hands the pictures to Abigail and picks up Sadusky's report. Looking down, Abigail sees that the rest of the folder is full of copies of old newspaper articles. She picks them up and begins scanning over them.

"Lily and Mark Brenner…" Ben reads out loud, "Died, along with their five-year-old son, in a cave-in while they were working at a dig site near Zacatecas, Mexico."

"A dig near Zacatecas? I don't remember that," Emily says.

"It seems the site wasn't up for very long before it was abandoned due to the cave-in," Abigail summarizes from the articles, "The dig was granted funding when a few Aztec artifacts were discovered, which was enough evidence to investigate whether the Aztec empire actually extended further north than what was originally assumed." She starts to read one of the articles aloud, "'Researchers unearthed a small room that contained some Aztec artifacts and a secret door that led further underground. In haste to study what lie beyond the door, Mark and Lily Brenner ignored orders to wait until the tunnel within was secure, and when the walls collapsed, they met their fate inside. Unfortunately, so did their five-year-old son, who was known to play hide-and-seek around the dig site.' This next article goes on to say that the bodies were never found, and the dig site was abandoned a short time later when it was concluded that the room just served as a hide-out and storage facility for thieves who had merely stolen the artifacts from an Aztec city."

"A thieves' quarters turned tomb," Patrick mumbles, "The nightmare of every archeologist and treasure hunter – to become the past while trying to uncover it."

"Well, if these people are, in fact, Riley's parents, it really does seem that treasure hunting is a genealogical trait," Emily quips.

"And that's not all that got passed to Riley," Ben states, stopping on the third page of Sadusky's report, "Check this out – Lily Brenner's maiden name was Lily Harvie, and get this, she was Lumbee."

Emily, Abigail, and Patrick all look at Ben in disbelief.

"Did I miss something there?" Sadusky asks.

"The Lumbee are a Native American tribe of mixed ancestry - see how her features are very European? It was speculated that the ancestors of the Lumbee were a mix between European colonists and possibly the Croatan, or Croatoan, Indians. One of the theories is that the colonists from Roanoke were never actually lost, but that they simply merged with the Croatan Indians."

"Which would explain the carvings White found when he returned to the Cittie of Raleigh," Sadusky concludes.

"My God," Emily says quietly, "If all this is true, do you realize what this means?"

The others look at her in silent anticipation.

"Riley could very well be a direct descendant of one of the Lost Colonists of Roanoke Island."


	11. Part 10

_**Part 10**_

_**A/N: **Now that I'm ten "scenes" into this, I realize that I've left out something vital – the disclaimer! Gotta give the right people credit, here, for giving us a great movie franchise to play off of. :)__ Anyway, I, of course, unfortunately do not own any of the National Treasure, well, anything. The characters are not mine to keep – only to borrow for a bit for this story. Disney owns everything and I bow down to them for all past and future installments of the National Treasure saga! And kudos to Justin Bartha for bringing Riley to life – these films wouldn't be as entertaining without him!

* * *

_

Riley has managed to roll the chair over so he in now on his back and is comically trying to chew through the tape that is tightly binding his wrists together. They are taped very tightly, the insides of each wrist pressing against one another, with the tape starting at the base of his hands and running all the way down to where his watch rests. He mumbles an "ow" once in a while when he accidentally nips his own skin. After a few tries, he manages to get a corner of the tape between his teeth and pulls his arms back, hard. A tiny piece of tape rips off in his mouth and when he tries to spit it out, he finds that it is stuck to his tongue. He struggles to maneuver his arms just right so he can reach the tape with his fingers, crossing his eyes as he tries to look down at his tongue. He retrieves the tape and wipes it off his finger on the bottom of the chair. Sighing, he lets his head fall back onto the chair and stares at the ceiling for a second. He tilts his head to the side and can just see a corner of his laptop sticking out from its resting place on the floor behind the desk.

"Oh, Riley, you're an idiot," he states, flustered at himself. He begins rocking the chair back and forth until it lands on its side again. Pressing his arms against the ground, he tries to pull his body across the floor, but the added weight of the chair is too much and his arms just slide back towards him across the smooth concrete floor. He can't quite reach the desk leg, so he rocks his body forward and back as much as he can, his leverage slowly inching the chair close enough to the desk where he can just reach it. Unable to grip the leg with both hands, he grabs on as tightly as he can with one hand and heaves himself closer to the laptop. He reaches out but still isn't close enough to grab it, so he has to grip the bottom of the wood paneling that makes up the side of the desk in order to slide further across the floor. It's a slow process, as he has a difficult time angling his hands just right to grab the bottom of the desk. Finally, he gets himself close enough to pull his laptop towards him. Inspecting it, he sees that the outer casing is cracked in several places and the screen, now dark, has a large split running across it from corner to corner. He picks it up and shakes it a little, looking relieved that by the sound of it, there doesn't appear to be any loose pieces floating around in the casing.

"Okay, baby, work for daddy," he says, holding down the power button.

Amazingly, the cracked screen flashes on and Riley let's out an excited "Yes!" When the password prompt appears, he grumbles as he struggles to type in the letters – with his hands tied together as they are, he can only push the keys with one finger in traditional hunt-and-peck fashion. He manages to log into his computer and opens up his video message recorder. "Oh, God," he says, flinching back as he sees what his face looks like on the screen. His bottom lip has swollen around the split and a good portion of his cheek is bruised and scraped from Elizabeth's ring. "I hope this doesn't get on Youtube," he mumbles as he pushes the Record button.

"Ben, I'm still alive," he starts, "– well, obviously you know that since you're watching this – anyway, I'm in some sort of old lab basement..which probably doesn't help you much...oh, the lady that kidnapped me, her name's not really Elizabeth Drake. I can't remember her real name, but she used to have blond hair. She was in charge of the Zacatecas dig – look for info on that and you can probably find out who she is, which hopefully can help lead you to where _I_ am. If not, I hope you found my map 'cause that's probably the only way you're gonna track me down."

He suddenly hears the door unlocking. "Oh no," he says, slamming the lid closed on the laptop. He quickly slides it back around to the other side of the desk and frantically tries to shove his body back where it was. He doesn't get very far when Elizabeth walks down the stairs. She stops and stares at him with an amused grin.

"Going somewhere?" she asks.

"Uh, _failing _at going somewhere, more like it. This chair's heavier than I thought."

"I already told you, there's no point in trying to escape. You'd never get past the man upstairs guarding the door."

"In that case, is strapping me to a chair really necessary? The tape kinda irritates my skin."

"It's for my piece of mind. There's too much computer equipment down here that you could tamper with – I can't have you sending messages to – "

She stops and looks at Riley's position on the floor, then looks down at the laptop. "Wasn't this open when I left it?" She asks, then bends down to look at it. Riley closes his eyes, knowing he's been caught. She picks it up and opens it, playing back the message that Riley hadn't quite finished recording.

Riley watches, worry etched into his face. "You're not gonna hit me again, are you?" he asks.

"Tempting as it is, no, I'm not. You've actually done me a favor."

Riley looks at her confused.

"You've logged into your computer for real this time. Now I'm free to search whatever files I wish."

"Yeah…not quite. You honestly think I guard my computer with only one password? Lady, I've got _everything_ under lockdown on that baby."

Elizabeth stands stock-still for a second, then picks up the laptop and holds it above her head. Riley's eyes get wide and he yells.

"No no no! Don't do-"

She brings it down hard on the edge of the desk, smashing it into pieces.

"-that." A look of utter sadness crosses Riley's face. "Well, now you've done it. All my research was in that computer, and now that you've broken it, I can't help you. Guess that means you better let me go."

"Enough games, Riley. There _was_ nothing worthwhile in that computer, was there? You stashed a map somewhere for your friend to find and that Edison nonsense you muttered back in your office was his ticket to finding it...I guess that means we'll be taking it back from him, doesn't it."

"You won't get it," Riley says, no doubt in his voice, "He'll have shown it to Sadusky by now and they'll probably station guys at every point on that map, guys that'll be looking for us. The second we start looking for the Colony, you'll get caught and hauled off to jail. Just give up."

"Give up? On one of the biggest discoveries of all time? I think not. Thanks to you revealing my 'name' to the FBI, I've been devising a plan to get them off my back. And are you forgetting that some of those FBI 'guys', as you call them, work for me? A missing persons search takes a lot of people, people Sadusky may not want to trust but won't have much of a choice; and though he's sure to perform a precautionary check on every agent he chooses to utilize for the search, he won't be able to catch my men. They know how to cover their tracks. Do you know what that means, Riley?"

Riley thinks for a minute, then very slowly looks up to meet Elizabeth's eyes. "Yeah," he says, "It means some of your guys could end up tagging along with my mine."

"That's right, Riley. In fact, I can guarantee that's precisely what would happen. So, unless you want to be responsible for the undoubtedly slow and painful deaths of your friends, you are going to help me divert the FBI away from us."

"And how are we going to do that? Are we gonna fake my death or something?"

"No. With all the video-tampering detection software out there now, it's too difficult to pull off faking an absolute, undeniable death. I also need you to remain in tact, so I won't resort to cutting off and mailing body parts for proof."

"Huh, every cloud _does _have a silver lining," Riley mutters.

"Instead," Elizabeth continues, ignoring Riley's comment, "we're going to turn this missing persons search into a full-on manhunt."

"Ohhhh – wait – what?"

Elizabeth squats down beside Riley and presses her hands on the floor, moving her face close enough to Riley's that he can feel her breath on his skin.

"You see, Riley, I want every agent in every department doing their best to hunt you down, and I want them doing it far, far away from where we're going to be, and if you want your friends to live, you will make this happen for me."

Riley stares at Elizabeth, then looks away, uncertainty etched in every feature of his expression.


	12. Part 11

_**Part 11**_

_**A/N: **Just to let everyone know, I'm going camping this weekend, so I won't have internet access to update every day like I've been trying to do. Sorry! Just stay tuned in and I'll post the next update when I can! Also, I may need a little time, shortly, to conduct some more research. I want the places I'm using in this story to be as accurate as possible so it retains the feel of the original movies – in other words, you could actually visit all the places on Riley's map and actually see most of the things I've showcased in this story if you wanted to. :)  


* * *

_

"What's the word on this Elizabeth Drake person?" Ben asks Sadusky as the group continues to try to make sense of Riley's work. Ben is doing research on a computer, trying to see if there is any actual significance behind the symbols on Riley's map. Abigail is looking through the older papers – the ones that don't match Riley's handwriting, and Emily is trying to sort through the random notes that don't contain symbols. Patrick is looking at various state maps spread out across a table and is circling potential landmarks near the areas that Riley has marked on the larger map. Sadusky is looking over Ben's shoulder, trying to help in any way possible.

"Did you know there are over three hundred and fifty people in the United States right now that go by the name Elizabeth Drake?" Sadusky responds. "And that's just the people that are registered citizens. I have a few of my agents pouring through the files of every one of them, but so far, we're coming up with nothing. There's also the possibility that she's not from here or that she's using an alias."

"It didn't sound like she had an accent," Ben says in a distracted tone.

"And I hear you can do a pretty mean British accent," Sadusky smiles. "The point being, accents can be picked up or dropped easily enough. It means nothing."

He leans over Ben and picks up the paper with the "∝" scribbled in the corner. "Do you think this could represent a fish?"

Ben looks at it again. "It could be."

Emily chimes in, "The Salmon is a very popular Native American symbol. It often stands for instinct, or determination."

"That would be the symbol placed in Tennessee on Riley's map," Patrick says. "I'm thinking it's supposed to be pointing us to Craighead Caverns, where there exists the country's biggest underground lake. It would make sense to put a fish there."

Ben frowns, "Or it could just be coincidence. The other symbols don't seem to be lining up quite so well."

An unhappy silence fills the room before Sadusky breaks it.

"Listen, Ben" Sadusky offers, "I've been thinking about this since you showed me the map. It's obvious that these places Riley marked on it are significant, right?"

Ben nods and Sadusky continues. "Okay, so odds are that's he's going to end up at one of them at some point in time. So, instead of wasting all our time trying to figure out this mess Riley left us, I could just station a few men at each post and wait for him to come to us."

Ben looks worried. "What about what Drake said about agents working for her?"

"It's a risk, but so's sitting here doing basically nothing. It's your call, Ben – I can do the best background checks I can and get agents out there looking for your friend, or we can keep trying to piece this puzzle together here. What do you wanna do?"

Ben looks at Abigail, who merely shrugs and shakes her head. He looks at Emily who just gives him a sympathetic look, then he moves on to look at Patrick.

"Just do whatever you think is right, son," Patrick says. "But if it helps, I do believe I've pinpointed the exact places Riley is referring to on this map."

Ben frowns. "…I just know Riley left everything that we need right here – we just haven't figured it out, yet ….but you're right, we don't have time for this." Ben looks directly at Sadusky, nodding. "Yeah, let's do it – let's get agents out there."

Sadusky pats Ben on the shoulder, "All right."

"Just, make sure you screen them, first," Ben says with urgency.

"I will," Sadusky assures him.

"And I'm going, too," Ben demands.

"Of course," Sadusky agrees, "I planned on sending you out to Roanoke right away – even with agents out there, it wouldn't hurt to continue working on this puzzle. It might help us find him faster."

"Me, too," Abigail suddenly shouts, louder than she intended. Ben and Sadusky look at her. "I want to go, too. Ben, you might need my help."

Sadusky starts to object, but Ben waves a hand in front of his face. "Don't bother," Ben says, "She's got that stubborn look in her eye. She won't take no for an answer."

Sadusky hesitates, then sighs in defeat. "All right, you and Ben will go to Roanoke with a few of my most trusted men, and I'll get people stationed at the other points."

"Well, what about us?" Patrick asks, and Emily comes to stand beside him.

"Mom, Dad," Ben turns to them, "I need you to stay here and keep working on this. We'll make copies of everything before we go so we can both be working on it. I'll be out in the field so I won't have access to the research materials I may need, and that's where you'll come in. If you find anything you think might even be a little bit important, call me."

Emily starts to protest but Patrick manages to cut her off. "You'll do the same, Ben? You'll call? Because anything you see out there might benefit us back here."

"Yeah, Dad, I'll call."

"Okay, then, get what you need and let's get going," Sadusky says, flipping open his phone to make his own preparations.


	13. Part 12

_**Part 12**_

_**A/N: **I'm back! And I come prepared with more "scenes." While I obviously did not have internet access whilst I was out camping, I did have my computer with me so I was able to work on this a bit over the weekend. Enjoy!

* * *

_

A heavily muscled, tall, bald man sporting a black suit impatiently raps on the door. "Hurry up in there." He shouts in a deep voice, obviously growing impatient.

"Almost done!" Riley shouts back from within the room. A few seconds later, the door opens and Riley is standing face-to-face with the tall man. "Uh, you probably don't want to go in there – I love those burritos but, _man,_ do they do a number on my stomach."

The man scrunches his face up before stepping back away from the door. Riley nods and smiles nervously as he moves past the man, heading back to what went from an empty desk to now his workstation in the basement. Another desk has been pushed up against it and three computers are now sitting on top of them. The two computers on each side are on and running various programs, but the one in the middle remains turned off with the case opened up and a few parts sitting on the desk beside it. Riley picks up a small screwdriver and tinkers with the inside of the computer. The man moves behind Riley's shoulder and is watching diligently.

"Do you have to stand right there?" Riley asks, pausing in his work to peek over his shoulder, "Seriously, your hot breath on my neck – not helping."

The man snorts in response, but does move back a step to give Riley some room. Riley stands up straight at the noise.

"Did you, did you really just _snort_?" Riley lets out a little laugh and turns to face the man, "Do you realize how much of a stereotype you are? The suit, the bald head, the scary toned muscles, the tan – I bet you if I searched your pocket I'd find some sunglasses. Am I right?"

The man's face is set in a deep frown. Riley takes a small step towards him, a small twinkle in his eye.

"You know who you remind me of?" he asks, "Aside from the typical bad-guy-FBI-agent type, anyway…you look like you should be one of those fake-pro-wrestler guys. You could come into the arena sporting your fancy suit and sunglasses and your name would be like 'Brutus the Body Guard' and everyone would boo you when you stepped into the ring. Maybe you should look into that – you'd make tons of money, I'm sure, _and_ it'd be legal."

The man, having lost his patience, steps forward and literally picks Riley up off the ground by his hoodie. "Maybe I should," he growls, "Except I already make tons of money throwing guys like you around, and when I do it, it isn't fake."

Riley gulps, then yells at the top of his lungs, "Elizabeth! Brutus is trying to kill me!"

The man sneers, then quickly drops Riley. The door opens and Elizabeth comes down the stairs.

"Oh my," she purrs, "Are you boys not playing nice?"

Riley quickly moves backwards until his back is to the computer he's been working on. 'Brutus' turns around and begins speaking angrily to Elizabeth.

"Babysitting is not in my job description," he snaps.

"He's far from being a baby," Elizabeth says, then looks at Riley, "Although he can be a handful. But, the fact is that we need him right now, so I would appreciate it if you wouldn't kill him before I find what I'm looking for."

The two continue to argue, and Riley takes the opportunity to slide something out of his back pocket and place it inside the computer casing, tucking it behind some wires where it can't be seen easily. He quickly pulls his hand out and pretends to be scratching his back when 'Brutus' shoots him a glare.

"I can understand if you don't want me to hurt him...seriously, anyway" he says, then looks back at Elizabeth, "But what I don't understand is why you're suddenly being so nice to him."

She smiles and walks over to Riley, running a hand through his black hair. "Because," she says as he tries to flinch away, "when he's being a good boy, I feel inclined to return the favor. However-" She grips a fistful of his hair and yanks his head back. "-if he's being a bad boy, I will also return the favor. Behave for Joseph, Riley, or next time I might be a little too...busy...to come down here right away."

She releases her hold on Riley's hair and he looks at the ground, rubbing his head. "So," she says, her voice suddenly chipper, "now that our little dispute is finished, how much longer before you're ready?"

Riley looks back at the computer before responding to her. "Uh, I just have these few components to install and it'll be set."

"You didn't answer my question," is all she says.

"Oh, uh, maybe fifteen minutes to get these pieces in - I have to do a little welding on the wires - and another, say, thirty minutes to set the logistics for everything, and then-"

"Why is this taking so long?" she huffs, cutting him off, "I thought you could hack into their system in minutes."

"Well, yeah, but that's back in my office where I already have all this stuff set up. Plus, you want me to hack into several systems, at once, where I'm normally paid to hack into just one, so naturally it would take a little longer to get things going. On top of that, without having a remote system actually set up in at least one of the agencies, there's that much more work I have to try to do from here and I don't even know if I can pull off half the things you want me to without-"

"You need a remote system set up at FBI headquarters?"

"I'd prefer that, yes, but with Sadusky on the lookout for 'suspicious activity' within the agency, I doubt-"

Elizabeth laughs, "Why didn't you say so in the first place? I can get whatever you need installed within the agency easily."

"But, Sadusky-"

"Has already taken several of his agents and spread them out across the country. He's gone to Roanoke with your friends, as well. With what staff is left at the agency, it won't be difficult at all to get what you need placed inside."

Riley thinks hard for a minute before looking back at Elizabeth. "Okay, first of all, let me finish talking this time. The interrupting thing is getting a little old."

She shoots him a look that could kill, but allows her features to soften as she nods.

"Alright, then moving right along, here - taking in the time I'll need to put together the remote system, I'd say we're looking at about an hour and a half before it's showtime."

"Very good, Riley, very good. Just let me know when it's finished." She walks towards the stairs and stops in front of Joseph. "If he causes you any more trouble," she states loud enough for Riley to clearly hear, "call for me, first. I'll let you know how far you can take his punishment."

Joseph grins ever so slightly at Riley, who shudders and turns back to his work. He grabs one of the pieces off the table and the soldering gun, but instead of setting that particular piece in place, he quickly sets to work on installing the little circuit board he had pulled out of his pocket and hidden within. It takes him seconds to get it in place and tucked back where no one looking for anything out of the ordinary would be able to see it. That done, he lets out the breath he's been holding, and sets to work installing the parts that are actually supposed to be in the computer.


	14. Part 13

_**Part 13**_

Ben, Abigail, Sadusky, and a few other agents are standing around while Abigail holds up a map of what Roanoke Island looked like in the time when the colony disappeared. Ben peeks over her shoulder, then looks back down at the page of Riley's notes that contains the "‹3" symbol.

"Come on, Riley, tell me what I'm missing," he mumbles.

Abigail lets the map drop down against her side. "We knew this might happen, Ben," she says sympathetically, placing a hand on his arm, "Everything's changed so much over the years. Riley might even have had a hard time finding what he was looking for here. Whatever clues used to be here may not exist anymore."

"I have to believe that they do, Abigail. Sure, we might get lucky and Drake might just show up somewhere with Riley in tow, but somehow I doubt it. I don't think she's going to be that stupid. We need to find the Lost Colony, first, or else we have no leverage."

Abigail hesitates before she speaks again. "Ben, I've been thinking…what if none of the places on the map actually contain the Lost Colony? I mean, what if they're all just clues so Riley had a way of finding it, but he can just take Drake right to the exact spot that houses the colony?"

"No, I don't think it's that simple, or else Riley would have probably just placed a big 'X' on the map. Each one of these places has some significance, some key to finding the Lost Colony, and if we get to those keys, first, then Drake will have no choice but to come to us."

Sadusky, who has been listening quietly to the conversation, finally pipes up. "That's a pretty sound theory, Ben. Or it would be, if you could figure out Riley's clues...What's on that sheet again that you're looking at?"

Ben starts reading random words off the page, "Well, aside from 'CROATOA', there's 'son forgotten', 'crow', 'spirits', 'North', uh, 'tree equals life', 'palisade equals protection' – he must be talking about the fence post that had the carving on it, there. It's kind of like one of those brainstorm webs except he forgot to put the main idea in the middle. We gotta keep looking around; I'm sure we'll find what we need if we just keep looking."

"I read that scientists have been searching for signs that lead to the Lost Colony here for centuries," Sadusky reminds him quietly, "Just wanted to remind you to keep that in mind."

"Yeah, but they didn't have any clues." With that, Ben reaches down and gently takes the map of old Roanoke from Abigail. As he stares at it, comparing it with the modern scenery, Sadusky's phone rings.

"Sadusky," he answers, then gets very quiet. Abigail and Ben stop what they're doing when they see Sadusky's lips press together tight. "Okay," he finally says, "send it over to the van." He hangs up and stands still, looking at the ground for a second.

"Well, did they find anything?" Ben finally asks.

"Yeah, they did, but you're not gonna be too happy about it," Sadusky says, his voice a little strained.

"Is Riley…?"

"Dead? No – let's just go take a look at what we got."

The party heads over to the van where the agents have set up their surveillance and tactical equipment. The agent sitting inside, a young-looking brunette with hazel eyes, is typing on a keyboard with one hand and turning dials on a sound system with the other. She nods at Sadusky and the others as they crowd into the van.

"It's just coming over now, sir," she says, and clicks the mouse a few times. Another few seconds go by before she turns around. "Are you ready for this?" she asks, seeming to ask Ben and Abigail more than Sadusky.

"Go ahead and play it," Sadusky says.

Ben wipes his hands on his pants as the screen directly in front of them flickers. He gasps when he sees Riley's face fill the screen, taking in the split lip and fresh bruise on his young partner's face.

"They hurt him," he mumbles, voice filled with venom. Abigail reaches over and grabs Ben's hand, pulling it onto her lap.

"Hey, guys, did you miss me?" Riley starts, giving a little wave to the camera. "Uh, geez, I don't where to start...I guess I should just jump right in and explain. Sadusky, I want to thank you for sending your staff all over the country – that got me faster and better access to the files I needed to get into at headquarters. You did exactly what I thought you'd do in case I disappeared, so you didn't disappoint. It's nice to know you really care that much about me...Of course, I have to give Ben credit for solving my little clues up to this point. I can only assume you're in Roanoke right now, and are probably watching this right about now - with Abigail, I bet – birds of a feather, right?" Riley winks suggestively at the last phrase, then his face gets very serious before he continues. "Look, Ben, this isn't really about you – you've always been there for me, treating me basically like family when I never had any. I am legitimately sorry that I had to use you this way, but I just couldn't do it anymore. I'm tired of being a nobody, risking my life just to end up still poor and with no appreciation. This job I got for the government – it was like a ticket in. It gave me everything I needed at my fingertips and, I don't know, I guess I just wasn't strong enough to fight that temptation. Anyway, the maps and the clues are total bogus, man. I made everything up, planted everything because I knew you'd find it, and I made it just hard enough to stall for the time I needed. It got you out of my hair and got the agents out of headquarters, giving me the access I needed to tap in to, well, anything I wanted. Actually, I thought you might figure me out for a while, there, because when I told Elizabeth what I had done, she panicked and pointed out that I forgotten to write the "N" on the note with 'CROTOA' circled on it. I was hoping you'd think it was just another clue, like to head North or something, instead of just the idiotic mistake that it was since I don't actually know my history all that well. Apparently I was right or you somehow didn't catch the glitch...but it doesn't matter, now, since you know it's not real. Oh, and if you're wondering about my face, I wasn't tortured. I was trying to stay on the down-low and had to run over to the 'west-side of the fence'," Riley says this in a mock-gangster manner, throwing up a gang sign with his hand, "to get some computer parts I needed to pull this off. I ended up getting mugged over there – there's some Karma getting back at me for ya. So, yeah, Ben, Abigail, I'm really very sorry about all this...Now for the demands. Sadusky, while my hacking skills are comparable to pretty much none, I knew I couldn't do what I planned without some outside help, which is where Elizabeth Drake comes in. Check out her name a little more closely – does Irish terrorism sound at familiar to you? Not usually over on our side of the world, I know, but it's around. Anyway, she had the means to get me better access to your building, which has granted me more access to your systems, bridging me to other systems, so I can do things like this…"

The screen switches to a shot of the intersection at 7th Street and Independence Avenue in D.C. Suddenly, all the lights at the intersection change to yellow, then flip to red, followed by two conflicting lights changing to green at the same time. Two cars start trying to pass through the intersection at once, though the drivers seem to notice the error at the last second. Both hit the brakes at nearly the same time, but they collide, anyway. The drivers of the other cars honk wildly as the street lights suddenly begin flashing in random order. The screen flips back to Riley.

"And that's gonna cause a traffic back-up for hours. Sorry, I had to show you a little of what I can do right now, but that's just the graham cracker on the smore – I don't think you wanna see the chocolate. Now, before I start sending funds to myself and running away to Sweden, I did promise Elizabeth a little favor in return for her services. See, you have some of her people in prison, and I'm gonna need you to let them out for her. Until you do that, I'm just gonna have to keep messing with your world for awhile before I'm outta your hair. I wouldn't recommend trying to waste your time with trying to find me. None of the agencies could track me down when I was working for them, so now isn't gonna be any different. But, whatever, waste time if you want – I'm not the one in a hurry. Elizabeth, on the other hand…" Riley claps his hands together, "So, that about wraps it up. Free the prisoners – I'm sure you can find out who I'm talking about – or I mess with more things I shouldn't be messing with. And Ben, don't let this get you too down – you were always a great treasure hunter before I came into the picture. I've always just kind of been a bad seed, who apparently grew up into a bad tree, and I'd hate to see you give up on what you love because of me. Sadusky, you can still get in touch with me through my email, which you know can't be tracked, if you wanna give me an answer regarding this whole prisoner thing. It's all on you, now."

Riley gives one last little smile before the screen goes black.


	15. Part 14

_**Part 14**_

Ben and Abigail are staring ahead in stunned silence, barely noticing when Sadusky squats down in front of them.

"Ben," he starts, deliberately slow and clear, "Rules have changed. I have to find Riley. Now. I still don't know this Elizabeth Drake, but if I check this out and she turns out to really be connected with terrorist activity, I'll be forced to treat Riley like he's a terrorist."

"Riley is not a terrorist," Ben says angrily, "Drake's gotta be forcing him to work for her. He would never hurt people on purpose. She tortured him – you saw his face!"

"Whether or not she made him do it or he's doing it voluntarily, it doesn't matter. It's not about a treasure hunt, anymore, it's about a terrorist act, and Riley is an asset to a terrorist. If we can stop him without hurting him, we'll try; but Ben, you have to understand that he can open up the secrets to everything we know. We need to find him now, and stop him now before he hurts anyone else."

"You saw what he did do that traffic light! He made sure everyone stopped, first, before he started messing with it. He was trying to prevent a major accident!"

"But he still _caused_ an accident, and it could have been worse. I have to act on this, now."

"No, Sadusky, don't do this. You know Riley! You can't–"

Sadusky turns and tells the female agent to send word back to Washington that the situation has changed. As Sadusky starts spouting out orders, Ben protests to the point that Sadusky has to have him escorted out of the van. He beets on the door a few times before Abigail lays a calming hand on Ben's shoulder.

"Stop, before you hurt yourself. You know he has to do his job, which first and foremost is to protect the American people–"

"And that doesn't include Riley?" Ben shouts, then immediately looks sorry. He turns away from her.

"Ben," she tries again, "he wants to help Riley, you know he does, but he also has to help other people's friends, and their spouses, and their children. He won't do anything rash unless he absolutely has to, and I don't think Riley is going to do anything that'll make him have to."

Ben's shoulders sink, "But he already has," he says as he turns to look back at her, "He's already caused an accident – one that could have been much worse if the drivers weren't paying attention. He cracked, Abigail, and from the looks of it, it only took a couple hits to get to him. Riley's never really been the most brave, but I thought it'd take a lot more than that to get him to turn against the people he cared for, and against innocent people. I know he's probably been through a lot, but I can't help but feel a little disappointed that he'd work for a terrorist, against his own country, that easily."

Abigail thinks for a second. "Maybe he didn't," she says, and Ben gives her a doubtful look. "Maybe he isn't working for a terrorist, but for a treasure hunter. Ben, what if this video was a just way to get the agents back to D.C. where they wouldn't get in the way?"

Ben continues to look unsure, averting his eyes from her. She gently tilts his chin so he has to look into her eyes. "Ben, with Sadusky essentially out of the picture, Riley's on his own out there. He _wants_ you to keep looking for him – he pretty much told you so at the end of the video. 'I'd hate to see you give up', remember? You'd never give up treasure hunting for anything, and Riley knows that. He'd have no reason to tell you as much unless there was something else behind it. That message was meant just for you, to tell you not to give up on _him_."

Ben's face suddenly lights up. "Abigail, you're a genius!" he says as he begins pounding on the van door again, shouting Sadusky's name. Sadusky finally opens the door and Ben begins to frantically explain Abigail's theory about the video being a hoax. Sadusky holds up a hand, cutting Ben off.

"Ben, I'm sorry. You may be right, but then again, you may not be. I have to treat this as a terrorist threat."

"But, I think there might be more clues in the video. If I can just watch it again, I bet there's more hidden messages in there for me. He'll tell me how to find him."

Sadusky pauses for moment, mulling over Ben's pleas, before he speaks again. "Here's what I can do for you. I can spare you just a couple of agents to tag along with you, and you can keep going with this search in case it actually _is_ real. But, I can only do that if I have your word that should you come across Riley, you _will_ call it in. If you don't, I have to treat the situation as if you were aiding a terrorist. Do you understand?"

"Yes, yes, I understand," Ben sputters out, "Thank you, Sadusky, you won't regret this."

"I better not." He turns to the young female agent, "Miller, I need you to make a copy of that tape and leave it with Mr. Gates, here."

She hesitates for a second and he asks her if there's a problem. "No, sir," she replies, "I was just thinking it might be better if I was one of the agents who stayed here with them, with the van, in case any more video feeds come through. If there are any hidden messages in those, I believe Mr. Gates might be the only one able to find them."

Sadusky nods, "That's actually not a bad idea. Good thinking, Miller."

Another agent suddenly steps forward - a tall, lean young man, who is a little awkward-looking. "I'll stay, too, sir," he says, shooting what appears to be a shy glance over at Agent Miller. Sadusky just smiles and approves, then notices the doubtful looks on Ben and Abigail's faces.

"This is Agent Tilton. He doesn't look like much, but this kid is the best shot I've ever seen with any weapon. You come across Drake, he can handle her," Sadusky explains, then moves on. "Now, the rest of us have to jet out of here. Ben, call me if you need anything and _especially_ if you find anything."

Ben nods and watches as Sadusky and his two other agents slide into a black SUV, on their way back to the airport with their sirens blaring. Ben turns back to Miller.

"Let me see that tape one more time," he says, the renewed determination evident in his voice.


	16. Part 15

_**Part 15**_

Riley is sitting back in his chair, arms folded over his chest and a look of pure anger on his face. Elizabeth tries to reach an arm around his shoulders but he pushes a foot against the desk leg, rolling the chair away from her.

"What's wrong, Riley? Your little video didn't sit well with you?"

"You lied to me," he spits out, venom in every word.

"No, I didn't. I merely didn't tell you the full truth."

"Yes, you did. Twice. First you told me you weren't a terrorist. Second, you didn't pay off government agents to work for you, did you? You straight up raised people to infiltrate the government to begin with. Who are you?"

Elizabeth shakes an accusatory finger at Riley and sits on the desk beside him. "It just amazes me how quick you are. Yes, you're right, every agent that works for me was raised up by me in a small terrorist faction...I tried to get out, you know, of the terrorism business. I was just small time, an information gatherer, so I never really played a big part in much of anything. One day I just realized that I wanted more with my life, so I changed my name, and my looks, and pursued my other interest – history. That dig that your parents screwed up was supposed to be my big find, my road to success, but obviously it didn't pan out. So, I turned back to what I was raised to do, and raised others to follow in my footsteps. The agents that work for me are practically my own children."

She smiles up at Joseph, who simply gives her a nod with his head to show his appreciation. Riley rolls his eyes.

"So, what," he asks, "after all these years, you see a picture of me and some cartoon fairy flies down and whispers into your psycho head that your dreams of being a famous treasure hunter can still come true? Because I'll tell you right now, if I know _anything_ about cartoon fairies, that kidnapping a person and threatening the FBI and causing car accidents and potentially releasing more terrorists from prison is probably _not_ what she had in mind, ya freak."

Joseph steps forward and tugs on the back of Riley's chair, tossing him backwards to the floor. Riley glares up at him and stands clumsily, favoring his right leg. Elizabeth frowns.

"Now see, Joseph," she says, concerned, "I told you that you took it too far, earlier."

"Well, he shouldn't have tried to kick me," Joseph retaliates.

"Well," Riley jumps in, "I wouldn't have tried to kick you if you weren't trying to break my freakin' arm."

"If I had wanted to break your arm, I would have, but I wouldn't have had to mess with you at all if you hadn't decided to go back on your word."

"Well, when I first agreed to this little plan, I didn't realize that I'd be _aiding_ a freakin' _terrorist!"_

"Boys," Elizabeth calmly says, placing a hand to her forehead, "Shouting at each other won't solve the issue, here. Riley, let me see your knee."

Riley shakes his head and moves back a step. "It's fine, thank you."

"Riley, we are about to head out on our little expedition, and I need to know that you are well enough to walk."

"Yeah? Then maybe you shouldn't have let your pet monster, here, have his way with me." Joseph arches an eyebrow, causing Riley's face to flush – "Wait, that didn't come out right."

"Regardless of who is responsible," Elizabeth continues, "if you don't let me tend to your knee and you find yourself unable to continue partway through our search, I will hold you personally responsible and I'll be forced to take that out on your friends. Is that what you want?"

Riley holds his position for a minute, hands clenched at his sides, before his shoulders slowly slump in defeat. He sighs, picks the chair up off the floor, and pushes it back in front of Elizabeth, limping as he walks. He plops into the chair heavily then rolls up his pant leg.

"There, that wasn't so hard," Elizabeth smiles as she begins to inspect his knee.

"You know, I've been thinking," Riley starts, then flinches as Elizabeth bends his leg to the side a little.

"No one cares what you think," Joseph snaps.

Riley opens his mouth to retaliate, but Elizabeth beats him to it. "Joseph, can you be a doll and get me the ace bandage from the medicine cabinet and a bag of ice?"

"But–"

"Now, please."

Joseph clamps his mouth shut, shoots Riley another death glare, then slowly walks up the stairs.

"Anyway," Riley continues once Joseph is fully gone, "I've been curious about a few things, actually. First, why bother bugging _my_ phone and not Ben's? I mean, sure, you _killed_ my parents and all and since you didn't know I saw that, I can see how you might have assumed that I might work for you like they did, but if you followed anything in the news you'd have seen that Ben is the one that finds everything, not me. I'm just the geeky assistant, and I'm sure you know that Ben's been working on something big, too…so, why me? How did you know who to target?"

"You surprise me, Riley, normally you're faster than that."

Riley just looks confused, so she decides to continue. "I picked you because I took a chance and assumed your mother's notes might mean something to you. Heaven knows they didn't make any sense to anyone else."

Riley shut his eyes, finally realizing what should have been obvious, already. "It was you," he said, "You were the one that mailed those pages to me."

"That's right, and I was thrilled to see that my hunch was correct – they sparked some memory in you, I presume?"

"Yeah, they did, and pleasant ones, too, until you showed up and made me remember all the bad ones that came after."

"If I had known what your mother was about to stumble onto, I wouldn't have killed her. I found the pages in her journal after the 'accident' and once I realized what they were pertaining to, I tried desperately to figure out what any of them meant. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything else in the journal to point me in the right direction – it seems she had just started puzzling the clues together. I gave up on the search after a while, but I hung onto those notes just in case I happened to stumble across something that might help me. Can you imagine my joy when I came across you?"

"And it worked out exactly like you planned, didn't it? I knew what the notes meant, and I filled in the rest of the puzzle…ugh, I feel like such an idiot. I should have known something fishy was going on when I got that package in the mail. You really had me going, you know? I actually thought my mom had just time-dated this package for me like the letter - which was apparently a fake - said, and for the first time in my life, I actually felt connected to her. You couldn't even leave me that, could you?"

"Come, now, I would have been perfectly content to allow you to continue believing that your mother had actually sent that package. You're the one that asked about it."

"Now you want to tell the truth…" Riley mumbles.

The door opens at the top of the stairs and Joseph walks back down into the room, ice and bandage in tow. "How bad did I damage him?" he asks, a touch of humor in his voice.

"It's sprained, but only mildly."

"That's too bad," Joseph says, frowning.

"I'd like to say thanks for your commiseration, but I'd be willing to bet it's the _mild_ part that's getting you down," Riley states, and Joseph just smiles.

Elizabeth sets to work taping up Riley's knee, and when she's done, she hands him the bag of ice. "Keep that on for fifteen minutes," she orders, and Riley gently places the bag on his knee, flinching a little at the cold. "Now," she continues, "You said there were a few things you were curious about. What were the others?"

"Oh, okay, well I was just wondering how exactly you expected to get away with all this. I mean, even if you change your name and what you look like again, it's gonna look pretty darn suspicious if some lady suddenly discovers the Lost Colony right after I supposedly made up a bunch of stuff about it. The government is going to be all over you."

"Thinking ahead, I see – so did I. It's very simple, really. You are going to take me to the Lost Colony, where I will then have people watching over it for a few years and…deal with the problem…should anyone else come close to discovering it. After things have died down with you, I'll come forward with my new discovery, along with new identity, and get all the glory."

"And what'll happen to me?"

"I haven't actually decided, yet. It really depends on you...Perhaps you'll change your mind and see my side of things. I could use a man of your talents on my team."

"Heh, is that fairy buzzing in your ear, again?"

"Do you like it when I hit you," Joseph snears, "or are you really just that stupid?"

"I'm not the one who got brainwashed by a terrorist," Riley is quick to reply.

Joseph lifts his hand to strike, but Elizabeth stays him with her own hand. Her eyes are practically on fire as she glares at them both. "You two _will_ stop this petty arguing or I will punish you both – severely." She waits until both Riley and Joseph nod their heads, then allows the anger to wash out of her. "Riley, was there anything else concerning you?"

He hesitates before speaking, this time. "Yeah," he finally says, "I have to know – why did you kill my parents?"


	17. Part 16

_**Part 16**_

_**A/N: **So as I've been writing this fanfic, I've also been reading quite a bit more of it. Being new to this whole style of fiction, I must admit that I'm not really up on the fanfic terminology. For instance, what exactly does OC stand for? There were some other things that I can't seem to remember off the top of my head right now, but if anyone sees fit to sort of clue me in on the lingo, I'd appreciate it!

* * *

_

"Can you rewind that again?" Ben asks, paper and pencil hand, ready to take notes.

"Did you notice something?" Abigail asks.

"Yeah, watch his eyes. It's subtle, but if you watch closely, you'll notice that he only looks directly at the camera a few times."

Miller obediently plays the tape again. "You're right," she says, and rewinds it again. "I can pull out just the frames where he does that, if you want."

"That'd be great, thanks."

Everyone in the van watches intently as Miller sorts through the video. Tilton inches slightly closer to her. "Anything I can do to help?" he asks.

"No, Agent Tilton, there isn't," Miller says, a hint of annoyance in her voice. Tilton slides back to his original spot looking very rejected. Ben gives him a sympathetic little smile.

"Here we go," Miller finally says, then plays the parts she has pulled out. The first part is where Riley says "_birds of a feather_" with his little wink. Abigail quickly opens the folder that contains Riley's pages of notes. She flips through and pulls out the page with the symbol pertaining to their location, as well as one of the old-looking pages that doesn't match Riley's handwriting.

"What do you got?" Ben asks.

"Well, Riley mentioned a crow on his page, and this one, here," she hands him the older one, "only has one word on it – feather."

"Good, it's a start. Or it at least confirms my theory, I hope. Play the next one."

Miller immediately obeys – _"…I had forgotten to write the 'N' on…'CROATOA'…"_

Ben looks down on the page that Abigail is still holding, "Yeah, I did notice that, actually. Honestly, I wasn't really sure either way whether it was a mistake or a clue. I guess it was a clue, after all. Play the next part."

_"…head north…"_

"Oh, so he really did mean to head north?" Tilton asks.

"Maybe…let it play out," Ben says.

_"…it's not real."_

"No," Miller says, "He _doesn't_ want you to head north. That's why there's no 'N'."

"Now we're getting somewhere," Abigail says enthusiastically. Miller plays the next part.

"_west-side of the fence…"_

"Oh, I got this one," Tilton practically shouts. "It's east, he wants you to go east."

He sits back looking proud of himself, then notices everyone staring at him. "What?" he asks, self-conscious.

"He said 'west'," Miller states the obvious.

"Yeah, that's what he said, but it's not what he_ did._ Watch his hand."

Miller plays back the clip, her facial expression changing from irritated to surprised. Ben and Abigail can only watch the agents in silence, not picking up on what is happening.

"He's right," she says, "We run into gangs all the time in DC, and they're always pretty proud to show off their signs. He said 'west' but he threw up the sign for 'east'."

"Would Riley even know that?" Abigail asks.

"I wouldn't doubt it," Ben confirms, "He did have a pretty complicated childhood, plus he likes cop movies. Good catch, Tilton."

Tilton is practically beaming. Miller rolls her eyes as she gets ready to play the next clip.

"Wait," Ben says, stopping her, "We didn't finish with the last one. His whole phrase included a fence."

"Are you thinking about the palisade?" Abigail questions.

"I can't imagine what other fence he'd be talking about. From just what we have, here, it seems we're supposed to look for something east of that palisade."

"And therein lies the problem," Abigail sighs, "No one knows exactly where that palisade once stood. It was recorded as being part of a stockade fence that surrounded the settlement, which no one can find."

"No," Ben says thoughtfully, "but theory has it that it was somewhere just to the northwest of the Lane's Fort entrance. If we know what we're looking for, maybe we can find it. Can you play the next clip, please."

"_don't…get…too down."_

_"_Huh," Ben huffs thoughtfully.

"What?" Abigail asks, "That one seems pretty standard – it essentially means we should be looking up."

"Oh, no, I got that. I just thought the s'more reference would have popped up as having some meaning somehow. I guess that one was just a pure Rileyism."

"Rileyism?"

"Yeah, I didn't know what else to call the odd things that kid says or does sometimes." Ben lets a small, sad smile cross his face.

"We'll get him back, Ben." Abigail soothes, then looks to Miller. "Are there any more?"

"Yup, there's a few more," Miller says, and hits the play button.

"_a…seed…ly grew up into a…tree."_

"Was that a mistake on his part?" Tilton asks.

"What, looking into the camera a touch early?" Miller asks.

Ben mouths the phrase quickly to himself. "No, I don't think it was," he says. "Say it together, fast, and you'll hear it."

Everyone can't help but do just that, and Abigail is the first to get it. "It's not seedly, it's seed_ling_," she says. "Some of the trees on this island are still the originals from when the colony disappeared, but they would have been seedlings or at least young trees at the time. We're looking for a sign in one of the trees!"

"And I'm willing to bet it's a feather," Ben says. "Wanna go check it out?" he asks.

"Hold on," Miller says, "There's still another message, here."

Ben, who was about to get up, stops and relaxes back in his seat. "Yeah, go ahead," he says.

"_I'd hate to see you give up on…me….It's all on you, now."_

Ben sits quietly for a second, struggling to fight back the tears growing in his eyes. "You were right, Abigail, he _did_ leave that message for me," he finally manages to spit out once he has his emotions under control. "I would have missed it if it weren't for you – he put all his faith in me and I would have missed it."

"It's okay, Ben, that's why I'm here. Strong emotions can sometimes cloud judgment, so I figured you'd need a second pair of eyes to help you. We can do this together. Now, are you ready? Riley pointed out the way, so let's not disappoint him."

Ben nods and leads the way for the party to exit the van. Tilton jumps out enthusiastically enough, seemingly excited about the concept of playing treasure-hunter, but Miller hesitates at the doors.

"Something wrong?" Tilton asks.

"I should probably hang back here, in case there's another message from Mr. Poole. Plus, I should contact Sadusky to inform him of what we just found here."

"Awe, come on, Miller," Tilton whines, "Don't be so uptight all the time. We're talking about a real treasure hunt, here. We can call Sadusky later when we confirm whether these clues are real or not."

Miller bites her lip, then nods once and hops out of the van. She's careful to lock it behind her before she moves to catch up with Ben and Abigail. Tilton gives her a nervous smile as she passes him, but she brushes by without seeming to notice. He sighs and follows after her, letting his eyes drop to her lower half. As if sensing this, she abruptly stops, turns back to Tilton and grabs him by his tie, practically throwing him in front of her.

"Move," she snaps, shoving him from behind.

Ben, who's been watching the little scene with Abigail, leans down to whisper in her ear. "Cute couple," he grins, and she gives him a light punch in the chest. She looks down at her map and begins leading the way, noticing that Ben is no longer right next to her.

"Oh, no you don't," she says, turning back to glare at him, "The only direction _you're_ supposed to be looking in is up." And she also grabs him by the arm, shoving him in front of her.

"Men are such pervs," Miller mumbles from the back of the group, and everybody laughs.

* * *

_**A/N:**_ _Just curious how many people actually said the "seed...ly" line out loud and got it before reading on!  
_


	18. Part 17

_**Part 17**_

**_A/N:_**_Thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, and alerted so far! And thank you Hypermint for filling me in on the fanfic lingo!

* * *

_

"Now this here tree," the old man drawls on, "I'd say's 'bout a hund'rd years old."

"No, Mr. Rickland," Ben sighs, "We need older. We're looking for ones that have been around since the late 1500's."

"Well, there'd be some o' them over by the, uh, the stage area where they got that play runnin' now."

Miller loses her patience. "Mr. Rickland, we've been over this several times. We need a tree, at least four centuries old, that would be somewhere east of the original Raleigh settlement. Now can you help us with that or not?"

"Welp, I do know my trees…but n'body didn't ever find that settlement."

Miller looks at Ben. "Can I shoot him?" she asks.

"That would be against policy," Tilton answers for Ben, "and we all know how much you're a stickler for policy."

"Shut it, Tilton, or I'll shoot _you_," Miller snaps, then walks away from the group to cool down.

"Is she always like that?" Ben asks Tilton.

"Pretty much, yeah. One of those I'm-a-female-agent-so-I-gotta-be-extra-tough sorta deals, I guess…kinda turns me on."

Ben smiles. "I think taming that tiger's a little out of your league, sport."

"Maybe, but I do like a challenge."

Ben turns back to Abigail, who is pointing to areas of the map where Mr. Rickland should be looking. He starts rambling off on another tangent and Ben can see that even the typically patient Abigail is starting to lose it.

"Maybe we should ditch him and find another guide," Tilton says under his breath to Ben.

"Yeah, but the rangers told me he knows the trees here better than anyone else."

"Well, maybe we should have gotten an extra guide that knew the history a little better."

"Maybe you're right."

Abigail walks over to them looking a little less irritated than she had a second ago. "I think I got through to him," she says, not sounding very certain. "It'd probably be best to head back to where we started – we've gotten a little off track, here."

"Ya think?" Miller asks sarcastically, rejoining the group, "Old Man Useless, there, has been running us around in circles. In fact, we're pretty far _north_ of where we thought the settlement should me. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that the one specific direction we _weren't_ supposed to be going in?"

"She's right," Ben says, taking a look around his surroundings, "Let's regroup like Abigail said and start over."

"Sure, I'd love to waste another two hours of my life," Miller mumbles as she starts heading back towards where they started their search. Tilton is quick on her heals, pointing out that she's the one that volunteered to stay behind and help. She snaps something back at him about meaning to stay in the van.

"Ya know, I'd take Riley's babble back any day over those two flirting," Abigail groans.

"If you can call it that," Ben says by way of agreeing, "I think she may actually shoot him before we're done."

Abigail smiles before walking over to escort Mr. Rickland back to their destination. When they get back to the general area where the palisade may have been, Ben literally grabs Mr. Rickland by the arms and gently walks him backwards as far west as Ben supposes the western side of the stockade may have reached. Then, he positions Mr. Rickland so that he is facing dead east. The old man doesn't complain at all during this process, just rambles on about gardening before Ben cuts him off.

"Okay, Mr. Rickland. Are you listening?"

"Sure, sure, go ahead."

"All right, I want you to look straight ahead."

Mr. Rickland complies.

"Good, now can you tell me if there are any trees, just in your direct line of vision, that would be old enough to have been around in the late 1500's?"

"Welp, of th' ones I can see right in th' front, there, nope."

"Would there be any somewhere _behind_ the trees that you can see?"

Mr. Rickland turns and starts to point a shaky finger towards the south. Ben quickly stops him and turns him back east.

"Just in this direction for right now, Mr. Rickland," he corrects.

The old man thinks for a minute, then shakes his head. "Not s'far as I know, and I know m' trees."

Tilton lets out a little snicker and Miller slaps him on the chest. Ben shoots them both a "knock-it-off" look.

"Okay, Mr. Rickland," he says, turning the old man just slightly to the south, "Are there any trees that I may be looking for, in your direct line of sight or just behind it, in this direction?"

"There's an ol' tree up yonder, has a hawk nest in it."

"Is that tree old enough to be from the late 1500's?"

"Well, no, but it is sight to see them hawks."

Ben simply turns Mr. Rickland back slightly to the northeast, and repeats the process, inching him back and forth from southeast to northeast a little at a time. Finally, when the old man is facing almost exactly northeast of where he started, he mentions a small patch of trees that fit Ben's description not too far from where they were standing.

"But, I thought we weren't supposed to be going north," Tilton questions.

"North of the palisade," Ben explains, "If we find what we're looking for, it just means the whole settlement, itself, was a little further north than what we expected.

It doesn't take them long to get to the part of the forest that Mr. Rickland had mentioned. He starts to ramble on, again, about the history of the trees and the birds that nest there and just about anything else he can think of relating to the land they are standing on. Everyone else ignores him as they walk around looking up at the trees that he had pointed out to them. Ben is peering up at one through a pair of binoculars when he hears the cawing of a crow coming from the tree a few feet away. He drops the binoculars and watches the bird for second, nestled on a branch screaming its awkward woes. On a whim, Ben brings the binoculars back up to his eyes and slowly scans up the tree. Just as he looks up past the bird, he sees a small dark spot embedded in the trunk.

"No way," he mutters.

"What is it?" Abigail asks.

"Here, take a look at this." Ben waves her over and hands her the binoculars, pointing up just past the crow. She messes with the focus for a few seconds, then gasps.

"Oh my God," she says excitedly, "Ben, we found it! We found the feather!"

Tilton and Miller join them and also take a turn locating the black feather engraved in the tree.

"There's plenty o' old crows nesting in these parts," Mr. Rickland offers, "Shoulda said that's what ya'll was lookin' for. I thought we was after an ol' tree."

"We were after an old tree, Mr. Rickland, we were," Ben says, putting an arm around the old man's shoulders. "And thank you for helping us find it." He pulls a wad of cash out of his wallet and slips it in Mr. Rickland's pocket. "We can take it from here."

The old man mumbles his thanks and your welcome's and heads back to the visitor center talking to himself. Once he's out of sight, Miller says, "Thank God! I think another minute with him and I really _would_ have had to shoot him." Everyone laughs, including Miller, when nobody argues.

After they simmer down, they all crowd around the tree, staring up at the feather.

"So…what now?" Tilton asks, "We just climb on up there and check it out?"

"Exactly," Ben says, "Give me a boost."

"It's too high, Ben," Abigail points out, "I don't think even with a boost you can reach that bottom branch. Then you'd half to climb halfway up that tree without any safety gear. What happens if you fall?"

"I'll go," Miller says, out of the blue. Everyone looks at her in surprise.

"Yeah, right," Tilton laughs, "If Ben can't reach it, how can you?"

Miller's face flushes a little as she hesitates. "I was a cheerleader in high school…I can show both you guys how to lift me up all the way above your heads, and if you need to, to toss me up the rest of the way to the branch. Once I'm there, I shouldn't have an issue climbing up to the feather. I have a lot of arm strength."

"I know that for a fact – you hit hard," Tilton smiles, "You never told me you were a cheerleader…"

"Tilton, if you mention this to anyone after today, I will kill you in your sleep."

He gulps and nods his head, then waits patiently as Miller shows him and Ben how to lift her above their heads. They do a practice with Abigail standing close by, ready to help catch Miller if she should fall. They do fine with it and Miller shows them how to push up properly for the toss. When she thinks they're ready, she gives them the okay. They hoist her up between them and brace her ankles at their shoulder level, then she nods and they straighten their arms up, not quite locking them. She has them move over just a little bit so she's just under the branch and she reaches her hands up as far as she can. "Okay!" she shouts, and Ben and Tilton bring her down just a little bit before launching her up into the air. She manages to wrap her arms around the branch and swings one leg up over the top of it, giving her the leverage she needs to pull her body over it.

"You okay?" Ben asks.

"Yup, just fine," she calls back down, and begins her ascent. They watch her nervously as she gets higher and higher into the tree.

"She's like a monkey up there," Abigail remarks, in awe.

"Too bad she's not wearing a skirt," Tilton says, then looks sheepish as Abigail gives him a disapproving look. "I didn't actually mean to say that out loud…"

Miller gets close to the crow, who doesn't seem to be too alarmed by her presence. She waves her hand at it until it flies off, cawing in disapproval. "Sorry, bird," she says, "I needed that branch." She moves into the space the crow had previously occupied and gets herself settled in front of the feather in a way where she can free up her arms to investigate it.

"It looks like it was carved into the wood, then burned to give it a black appearance!" she shouts down at her party waiting anxiously below. "The detail on it is amazing!"

"Is there anything written on it? Or does it do anything?" Ben hollers back up.

Miller looks closely but doesn't see anything more than the fine detail that gives it the appearance of a real feather. She runs her fingers over it and realizes it gives, just a little, when she presses on the left side of it. "I might have found something...give me a second!" she calls down, then pulls out her pocketknife. She works it all along the outside edges of the feather, freeing up the sap that has grown in over the years. When she finally sees the feather shaking loosely around the knife, she pulls it out and presses on the left side, again. The whole feather turns in place, rotating on wooden pins, until she has completely flipped it around. The inside surface is just sanded-down wood with a tiny hole near the top. Miller sticks the tip of her knife in the hole and twists it around until the entire back piece of the feather carving pops off, revealing that the inside is hollow with the exception of one small item.

"I got it!" she yells, reaching in and pulling out the treasure trapped inside.

"What is it?" Ben asks.

"It's a tiny statue...carved from bone, I think...it's a crow!"

She slides the small statue into her pocket and begins to carefully pick her way back down the tree.

* * *

**_A/N:_**_ Dude, I wanted to shoot that old man just writing about him! I don't know how they put up with him for as long as they did!_


	19. Part 18

_**Part 18**_

Ben is turning the little crow statue over and over again in his fingers. He, Abigail, and the two agents are sitting on one of the benches at the otherwise abandoned Waterside Theater.

"It's gotta be some sort of key," Ben mutters.

"Key for what?" Miller asks.

"I don't know…but it wouldn't be hidden up there if it wasn't important. There's probably something similar at each one of the sites Riley marked."

"Which would explain why he didn't just mark where the Lost Colony is hidden to begin with," Abigail finishes, "He would need the keys to get to it."

"Okay, so all we have to do is hit each one of those places and we can find this Lost Colony, right?" Tilton asks.

"It's not that simple," Ben explains. "First of all, we would never have found this one without Riley's help. I doubt he's going to be able to send us a secret video for every one of those locations. I hate to think what Drake'll do to him if she figures out what he did…"

Ben swallows the lump in his throat, then realizes he's created an uncomfortable silence. He shakes it off and smiles up at Abigail reassuringly.

"Anyway," he continues, "There are eight locations, total, which means there are eight keys, which means there are eight doors. It won't do us any good if we don't know which key goes to which door."

"So how do we find that out?" Tilton prompts.

"I don't know. It could be as simple as matching the key with the symbol we found it with, like the crow with the feather, or–"

Ben stops talking as a little girl goes racing past him, cruising in and out of the rows of benches. An older girl follows behind, walking while she's texting on her phone. Ben can't help but notice something she types on her screen, and he jumps up from his seat to take a closer look.

"Excuse me, excuse me," he calls as he chases after her. She looks at him and backs up nervously. "Oh, no, sorry, don't be scared, don't be scared. I just noticed you typed something on your screen, there, and I was wondering what it was. You see, someone sent me a text with the same thing and I–"

"Didn't get it?" the girl asks, rolling her eyes, "That's because you're old."

Ben let's out a little surprised laugh. "Yes, I, uh, I can see that you would think that – look, can you please just tell me what that means, because in _my_ time, that symbol just means 'less than three'. I'm sure it must have a different meaning outside of a math context?"

"It's not that hard," the girl sasses, "It's just a heart." With that, she turns and stalks off after her little sister.

"A heart?" Ben asks to no one in particular. He looks over his shoulder as Abigail touches him.

"Is there a reason you went chasing after a little girl, in front of two FBI agents, I might add?" she asks.

"It was just a heart," Ben says, and she looks at him like he's gone nuts.

"Ben...should I be scared?"

"We have to get back to the van," he says suddenly, and practically takes off running, Abigail and the others following behind him, confused.

Ben reaches the van and tries to open the doors, forgetting that Miller had locked them. He twirls his hands impatiently as she gets the keys out. She stops with her hand poised in front of the lock. "Don't rush me, Mr. Gates," she advises.

"Sorry, Agent Miller. Can you please just open the doors."

She nods, and Ben is surprised to see just a hint of a smile on her face as she turns back to the lock. Shrugging it off, he jumps in, first, when she finally swings the doors open. He goes straight to the map and lays it out across the floor. His eyes hastily scan over the symbols, once again.

"Ben, what are looking for?" Abigail asks.

"The symbols, they _do_ represent something," Ben says, still pouring over the map.

"Didn't we already sort of establish that?" she asks.

"Yes, but we didn't know what they represented. They're just shapes, Abigail. This symbol–" he points to the "‹3" marked over Roanoke, "is a heart. The 'n' could just be an arch, the asterisk is probably just a star-"

"But, Ben, we still don't know what any of this means," Abigail points out.

"It has to mean something. Riley used these symbols for some reason…I just have to think like Riley."

Ben stands up and takes the map back outside. He stares at it, pacing back and forth, mumbling what he perceives the shapes might be in different orders. "Heart, money, arch, fish – no, that's not right. Heart, arch, fish, star – doesn't make any sense. Come on, think like Riley…Heart, dollar, star, clover?"

He stops pacing in his tracks. "Oh, no, Riley, you didn't actually–" He looks down at the map again, then looks up and laughs out loud. He keeps laughing until he literally has to sit down on the ground. The others just stare at him in disbelief, and when his laughing spell is over, he looks up at Abigail with tears in his eyes.

"Abigail," he spits out between small chuckles, "We weren't thinking like Riley!"

"Ben, I don't know what that means," she responds, unsure.

Ben tries to explain but falls into another laughing fit. He takes a few deep breaths and tries again. "He doesn't think like we do, Abigail," he starts to explain, then changes his tactic when he sees her still-confused face. Still snickering, he gets out, "What's Riley's favorite breakfast?"

"What does that have to do wi–" She stops, and Ben laughs harder as her mouth drops open. "Are you serious?" she asks, then runs over to check out the map. As soon as she sees it, she starts laughing just as hard as Ben.

"I think they've lost it," Tilton says to Miller.

"I think you're right," Miller responds, then shouts at Ben and Abigail, "Hey, would you mind filling in the agents responsible for your _lives_ on what's going on, please?"

Ben makes the attempt while Abigail is still laughing, "The symbols" – he laughs – "we have to follow them in order."

"And what's the order?" Miller asks.

Abigail jumps up and walks the map over to the agents. She points to the symbols as she explains. "This one is a heart, the asterisk is a star, the 'u' is a horseshoe, this one," she points to the '⌘', "is a clover, the parenthesis is a moon, the dollar sign represent gold, the 'n' is a rainbow, and the alpha symbol that we thought was a fish is actually a balloon."

"Ha!" Tilton laughs out, quick to catch on. "Hearts, stars, horseshoes, clovers, and blue moons, pots of gold and rainbows, and me red balloons! It's the jingle for Lucky Charms!"

"That," Miller looks flabbergasted, "that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard of," but she can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it, either.

Ben stands up and walks back over to the van, wiping away the tears. "Riley's just sort of a special type of genius," he explains. "You'll see – as soon as we find him, you'll see."

"So what are we waiting for?" Miller says, "We know what the next stop is – let's go."

"Right, all the way to Utah," Ben says, "to Arches National Park."


	20. Part 19

_**Part 19**_

**_A/N:_** _Sorry I've been gone a couple days! The charger for my computer broke so until I was able to get it replaced today, I had to do the responsible thing and use the last of my battery working on homework. Blech! Anyway, I totally flirted with the Mac tech guy until he just gave me a new charger so everybody thank him for allowing me to update today instead of having to wait clear into next week sometime – thank you Mac guy!

* * *

_

"This guy is great!" Riley chuckles. He is sitting down on the ground, his back against the trunk of a large tree.

"The guy's about to have his nose broken, I think," the man standing next to Riley, leaning on the same tree, smirks. He is young, not too much older than Riley by the looks of it, and has military-short blond hair. He is wearing a tight blue t-shirt with a surfboard on it and long khaki shorts, completing the ensemble with tennis shoes and barely visible ankle socks. He has his sunglasses resting on his head as he watches Joseph losing his patience with Mr. Rickland. Elizabeth stands off to the side, seeming to struggle with calling off Joseph or just letting him torture the old man.

"Maybe you should step in?" Riley asks the blond.

"Oh no, I know better than to get in Joe's way when he's angry. Elizabeth is the only one that can reign him in….well, except at work. He knows he has to behave there."

Riley looks up disbelievingly. "He_ really_ doesn't stand out at the agency? To me, he's got 'bad guy' written all over his face."

"You don't know a lot of SWAT guys, do you? Trust me, he fits right in."

Joseph suddenly grabs the old man by his shirt collar, pulling him very close to his face. "I am losing my patience, old man," Joseph hisses, "Tell us how to find this tree, or I'll-"

"Alright, okay, simmer down there, Brutus," Riley interrupts, using the tree behind him to help him stand. He limps over to Joseph, who has now turned and is directing his anger at Riley. "Why don't you let me talk to him – I get crazy speak," Riley says, flashing his brightest smile.

Joseph releases his hold on Mr. Rickland. The old man oddly doesn't even seem to be phased. He just readjusts his collar and walks off a few feet, muttering to himself. Elizabeth walks over to where Joseph and Riley are facing off, Joseph seething and Riley just grinning innocently. The blond stays back and observes, amusement flashing in his pale blue eyes. Riley breaks eye contact with Joseph to face Elizabeth as she approaches.

"Let me just ask him a few questions," he insists.

"I don't see how anything you say will get through to him anymore than what we've tried," she says, but doesn't seem very confident.

"Well, I don't exactly come off like I wanna kill the guy," Riley retorts, "I think you guys might be making him nervous. Just hang back here for a second and give me a shot with him, okay?"

She hesitates to answer.

"You can't possibly be thinking about allowing this!" Joseph gripes, "What if he tells that old man something he shouldn't."

The blond finally speaks up from his observation point. "Like it would matter – you've been yelling at that guy for like forty-five minutes and he doesn't even know you're about two seconds from strangling him! You could probably tell him the sky was falling and he'd probably still just stand there mumbling to himself. The guy's not all there in the head – I say give Riley a chance 'cause God knows what you're doing isn't working."

Joseph grunts and Elizabeth, after taking this all in, nods to Riley. She opens her mouth to speak when Riley cuts her off.

"Oh, wait, let me guess," he says, then continues using his girly voice impression, "If you try anything, my agent will shoot your friends, and it'll be your responsibility." He turns to Joseph. "Then you say," switching to a gruff voice, "Yeah, if you try anything funny, I'll chew off your fingers and stick them in your ears." He switches back to his normal voice. "Sound about right? Okay."

Without waiting for a response, he limps off and wraps an arm over Mr. Rickland's shoulder, pulling him a few feet further away from his kidnappers. The blond looks like he's trying very hard to hold in his laughter. Elizabeth looks at him and frowns.

"Evan, I shouldn't have to tell you not to get too close to the hostages – you know that," she says.

"I know, but I gotta admit I'm having a hard time not liking this guy. I mean, how many hostages have we had that keep their sense of humor?"

"That's because he's an idiot like you," Joseph mumbles. Evan laughs and just claps him on the shoulder.

Riley stops walking at checks over his shoulder, making sure the others appear to be out of ear-shot. He snaps a finger in Mr. Rickland's face, who stops his mumbling and looks expectantly at Riley.

"Well, son, I ain't got all day. Whaddya want?" he asks. Riley smiles.

"Mr. Rickland, this is very important, okay? I need to know, are we the first group of people that have asked you to find us a special tree today?"

The old man gives Riley a confused look. "Lots 'o people ask me 'bout trees," he says, "'s kinda my job."

"No - yes, I know that. What I mean is, was there a group of people here earlier that were looking, specifically, for a tree that might have been here around the time the Lost Colony disappeared?"

Mr. Rickland scratches his head before he continues. "There were some folk that said they was lookin' for a tree like that, but they was actully lookin' for some old crow."

"A crow? A crow – okay, do you know if they found it?"

"Yup, they sure did. We was walkin' around fur hours lookin' for a tree, but that feller done paid me a good sum when we found that old crow."

Riley leans down and places both hands on the old man's arms. "Mr. Rickland, the man that paid you, was he tall? With those kind of annoying, I'm-on-the-verge-of-falling-asleep-while-you're-talking sort of eyes?"

"Yup, that'd be the one. He had a pretty blonde with 'em, too, and some real official-lookin' folk in fancy clothes."

"It _was_ Ben," Riley says to himself, smiling, before turning back to Mr. Rickland. "Okay, Mr. Rickland, do you remember which tree they spotted the crow in?"

"Oh, I can take ya to see any old crow," he responds, "Though I don't see why ya'll is so intrested in 'em."

"No, no, it can't just be any old crow in any old tree. I need to see the specific tree that that particular crow was sitting in – please – if you can do that."

"O'course I can do that. Who do ya think I am? A amateur? It's this way."

The old man starts heading off into the woods. Riley looks back and motions for the others to follow, beaming at the surprised looks on their faces. He gives Joseph a little wink as the big man passes him, whose face manages to set in a deeper scowl in return. Evan gives Riley a high-five as he moves past and Elizabeth keeps pace with Riley.

"How did you get him to talk?" she asks.

"I told you – I know how to speak crazy...without the being mean part," he says, still grinning.

They get to the tree with the feather and send Mr. Rickland on his way, not paying him this time for his services. Riley points up at the dark spot on the trunk that is several feet overhead.

"I think that's it, there," he says, "It's a little hard to see."

"Only one way to find out," Evan says, then motions with his arms for everyone to move out of the way. He takes several steps back, then sprints towards the tree at amazing speed. He literally runs up the tree trunk and when he's close enough, leaps for the lowest branch, easily swinging himself into a squatting position on top of it. He uses a series of acrobatic maneuvers to glide up the tree in much faster time than agent Miller had.

"Evan's got some moves," Riley whistles, impressed.

"You didn't think I chose him for my team just because of his pretty face, now did you?" Elizabeth muses, looking on as a proud mother would at her child.

They watch as Evan makes it to the feather and wait as he inspects it.

"It's definitely a feather!" he yells down. "What do I do with it?"

Joseph and Elizabeth turn to Riley. He shrugs, then yells back up at Evan, "I don't know – poke it or something!"

Evan pushes on it with his fingers and the feather turns easily on its axis. He turns it all the way around and spots the little hole in the back.

"I think it's some kind of box!" he shouts.

"Can you open it?" Elizabeth shouts back.

"I think so – gimme a sec." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out not a knife, but a lock-picking kit. He pulls out one of the torque wrenches and uses it to gently pry the back off the feather. He sets it aside and peers into the box.

"There _is_ supposed to be something in here, right?" he calls down.

Riley can't keep the grin off his face. "Uh oh," he says, "Someone beat us to it."

He never even sees the blow coming.


	21. Part 20

_**Part 20**_

_**A/N:**_ _Twenty "parts" and the main adventure is still in it's beginning phases! Thanks to everyone who is sticking with me - sit tight 'cause it's gonna be a long ride! At least my chapters aren't too long, right? Anyway, I realize I keep adding more and characters into the plot. What can I say - I like the audience to get a little personal with the main cast, good or bad, and you can't do that without knowing names! Don't worry, though, Evan should be the last that you have to keep track of. Anyone else will just be background support and should remain nameless. :)

* * *

_

"Ah, geez!" Riley moans, cupping a hand to his left ear. "Did you have to go for the ear?"

Elizabeth steps towards him and he hastily scoots across the ground away from her.

"No, you stay away from me with your, your, freakish, mutant, man-strength," he stumbles.

"I told you, Riley, if you want me to play nice, you have to play nice. You didn't play nice," she warns, "and you should be grateful I was the one that hit you. I'm sure Joseph would have been glad to take the honor."

Joseph curls one fist of his in the other and cracks his knuckles menacingly. "I can still take a turn," he suggests. Elizabeth waves him off and continues to glare down at Riley.

"What did you do?" she asks.

"What?" he responds, his fear starting to turn to anger, "I can't hear you with the _ringing_ in my _ear!_" He pulls his hand away and looks at it, seeing blood on his fingers. He reaches back up and feels the streamlet of warm liquid oozing from his ear. "Great, I think you ruptured my eardrum."

Elizabeth squats down in front of him and speaks very slowly and deliberately. "What…did….you…do?"

Evan lands gracefully, almost silently behind Riley. "Dude, you better answer her," he whispers into Riley's good ear. Riley looks back at him, jaw set in anger, and quickly wipes more blood off the side of his face. He looks back at Elizabeth, then pushes himself to his feet.

"Do you play poker?" he asks, and Elizabeth looks a little taken aback by the question.

"…I don't see how that's relevant-"

"I don't like poker – there's too much based on chance and not enough on skill. I hate knowing that I got dealt a bad hand and that the person across the table is grinning like an idiot because they're one card away from a royal flush."

"Riley, if you don't tell me-"

"I'm not done. Now, sometimes in poker you get lucky and even though you have nothing, you know the other guy has nothing, too, unless he gets that one card, and somehow you find out what that card is. So, what do you do?"

"You find that card and you hold onto it," Evan answers for Elizabeth, who doesn't appear to be in the mood to play along just yet.

"Yes – you find the card - except in this case, I was outta turns so I signaled for help from the other guy at the table, who happens to be my secret partner." He takes a brave step closer to Elizabeth. "You don't hold all the cards, anymore, Elizabeth, and if you want that flush maybe you should cooperate with _me_ a little."

Her face reddens with anger. "And what if I just _kill_ your secret partner and take the card?" she asks between clenched teeth.

"Well if you do that, I don't play poker with you anymore and you don't get to take me for the pot."

She moves forward so that she's speaking right into Riley's face. "And what if the pot isn't worth keeping you at my poker table?"

Riley smiles. "You wouldn't be going through this much trouble if it wasn't. So, you wanna fold our hands and start over? No cheating this time?"

She returns the smile. "Well, well, well, look at you Mr. Poole. Trying to make deals, be the big man. I must admit I'm a little impressed by you." Her smile drops and her look darkens. "However, there is something you should know – I actually_ do_ like poker except, like you, I don't like leaving things to chance. Which is why I don't. You see, when I want a flush, I get a flush, every time. I _always_ hold all the cards. If we don't get back whatever your friends stole, I will start killing everyone you ever knew, one by one, in front of you. I wonder how many I'd go through before you cracked? Would it be on Patrick? Emily? Abigail? Perhaps your ex-girlfriend? Or that little girl who you bought ice cream for after she dropped hers?"

"You wouldn't do that." He doesn't sound sure.

"Do you really want to test that? Do you? Really I should be asking _you_ the question – how much is the pot worth to _you?"_

Riley shifts his eyes away from her. "Not their lives," he mutters.

"What was that?"

"_Not_ their lives."

"That's what I thought. So, what do you recommend we do to rectify this little situation that doesn't involve me killing anyone just yet."

Riley thinks for a second. "I need to get back to the computer," he says, "I can stop Ben right now if you want."

"What are you gonna do?" Joseph asks, "Send him a message asking him to stop? You said something to him in that first video, didn't you? Something that led him here."

"Actually, Brutus, yes, I did, knowing you weren't smart enough to catch it. I did it right in front of your ugly face."

"Riley, I will let him hit you," Elizabeth warns, "My patience with you is dangerously short right at this moment, and now that you've admittedly revealed we can't trust you with video messages, what do you intend to do?"

"I'll have to show you, but it won't involve a video feed. In fact, there'll be no way of knowing I was even involved."

"Well, I'm curious," Evan volunteers.

Elizabeth gives it a little more thought. "Fine," she finally says, "There's no point in standing around here like this, anyway, and it's probably about time we played with Sadusky a bit more before he catches on to us."

"Alright, back to the car it is," Evan says, rubbing his hands together.

Elizabeth leads the way, Joseph following directly behind her. Evan ushers Riley to go ahead and falls in step behind him. "If you're thinking of doing something smart, again," he quietly warns, "I'd seriously push the stop button on your brain, if I were you. Next time she might damage something that won't heal. I've seen her take eyes, before, and dude, it's not pretty."

Riley shakes his head, "I have to think smart – I always think smart. It's the stupid that creeps in from time to time that gets me in trouble. The problem is, I don't think it's _me_ that's gonna get hurt the next time stupid comes around."

"For your sake, I hope you're right," Evan shrugs.

"I don't," Riley quickly replies, "Because if she hurts any of the people I care about, I think stupid might move in for good, and that _won't_ be good for anybody's sake."


	22. Part 21

_**Part 21**_

"Got it working yet?" Ben asks, watching as Miller backs out of the metal cupboard containing all the hardware for the van's computer equipment.

"Thousands of dollars worth of communication gear and it just dies on me," she grumbles, more to herself than in reply to Ben. She shouts up to Tilton, who is driving. "Tell him it's not good!"

Tilton, who is talking into his earpiece, holds up a finger asking her to wait. After a second, he says into the phone, "Yes, sir...No, she can't get it working….I'm not sure, sir…Right…Yes, as soon as we get there….Okay, I will. Thank you sir." He hangs up.

"Well?" Miller prods.

"Well what?" he answers.

"Don't toy with me. What'd he say?"

"Uh, he said there's not much he can do for us right now. He's kind of got his hands full with-" he cuts himself off and looks at Ben and Abigail.

"With Riley?" Ben asks, "What'd he do?"

"Well, he, uh, he got into the main line over at Washington National. He tampered with enough of the software to force the airport to ground all the planes. I guess they're calling all incoming flights and diverting them somewhere else."

All Ben can do is nod.

"If you makes you feel any better," Tilton offers, "it looks like the software tampering was layered so that it prevented new flights from taking off while still allowing any coming in at the time to land safely."

"Atta boy, Riley," Ben mumbles.

"It's still pretty stupid," Miller gripes, "Tampering with the airport – that's still one of the worst things anyone can do after the 9/11 situation. Maybe the planes are safe but what about all the people? This could create a panic and with as many people as there are at National at any given time, there's still plenty of ways someone can get injured."

"Well it's not like he had a choice," Ben snaps.

"There's always a choice. He's putting himself above the safety of others and that sounds pretty selfish to me. I hope Sadusky _does_ find him before we do."

Ben stands up but nearly falls over as the van wavers. He grips the partial barrier that's dividing the front seats from the rest of the vehicle, his knuckles turning white.

"DON'T talk about him like that! You don't know _anything_ about Riley. Over and over again he's volunteered to put himself in danger for us. Among other things, he risked being sent to prison to save the Declaration, risked worse to help me talk privately with the President, nearly stayed behind on a teetering platform where one wrong move would have resulted in his death, could have drowned pulling me out of a room filling with water – which I never even thanked him for – and has done his best to give us clue after clue to help us find Drake, which I'm sure hasn't turned out well for him. Riley is anything _but_ selfish, and if you say anything like that again, I'll call Sadusky myself and tell him to call you back to DC."

Miller clenches her jaw and turns back to work on the computers. Ben sits back down, breathing heavily. Abigail, who's been sitting in the front passenger seat next to Tilton, makes her way back to sit beside Ben. She starts to say something to him when the computers start running and the screens suddenly flicker on.

"What the..?" Miller says, confused, as she stands to look at the screens.

"Hey, you got it! What'd you do?" Tilton asks.

"That's just it – I didn't _do_ anything," Miller replies, "They all just turned on by themselves."

Ben forgets his anger and is looking intently at the computers.

"It's gotta be Riley," he says. Abigail squeezes his hand.

Suddenly, the van starts to stutter and seconds later, comes to a complete halt. The computers all shut off, again, at the same time that the van ceases to function.

"Tilton, what are you doing" Miller asks.

"Nothing! The thing just cut out on me!"

He tries to turn the engine over but nothing happens.

"Great! Just freakin' great!" Miller shouts, flinging the back doors open. "Tilton! Pop the hood and get out here."

"I don't know anything about cars," he starts, but she comes to his side of the car and literally pulls him out of his seat. She reaches in and pops the hood, herself, then drags him to the front to help her. Ben and Abigail are still standing, staring at the black screens.

"You don't think Riley…" Abigail starts to say, then stops herself.

"It's hard to say." Ben looks down at her, "If anyone can stop a car with a computer, it'd probably be Riley, though."

They get out of the van and walk around to see what the verdict is. Miller is pulling and poking around the engine, looking both frustrated and confused.

"I don't understand...I don't see anything wrong, here. There's no smoke, nothing's leaking, everything looks connected right, the fluids are all fine. It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe the battery's just dead?" Tilton offers.

"It's a brand new battery, Tilton, it wouldn't just die like that. And there's no evidence of the connection frying. It's just plain dead. We're stuck in the middle of nowhere, Illinois, with a dead tactical van. This is fantastic."

"Can't we just call for a tow?" Abigail suggests.

"Check your phone," Miller grumbles.

Abigail and Ben both pull out their cells to find that neither one of them will turn on. Abigail quickly puts hers away and still tries to make light of the situation. "Well, this is a pretty major highway – we'll just flag down the next person that comes along for a ride."

"We can't do that, either," Miller says.

"Why not?" Ben asks.

"Because," Tilton answers, "Miller won't leave the van behind. If any of the gear gets looted or vandalized, it'll be on our heads. I mean, not that it really matters since none of it works right now, anyway, but it's against protocol."

"Maybe we can just send one person ahead to the nearest garage and-" Abigail continues, but Miller cuts her off.

"Who would we send? If Drake knows we took that carving, she's probably after us. If that's the case, I can't send one of you by yourselves, and if one of us goes, that leaves only one of us to protect you. We have to stay together and we can't leave the van."

"So," Ben chimes in, "we still flag down the next vehicle – shouldn't be too hard if you flash your badges at them – and ask to use their cell phone. We call a tow truck, call Sadusky back, and have him send someone to deal with the van while we get another car. Would that work for you?"

Miller scrunches her face to the side in thought, then nods. "Yeah, I guess that'll be fine."

"Okay, so we'll just sit tight until the next car comes along," Ben says, and leans back against the side of the van to wait.


	23. Part 22

_**Part 22**_

**A/N**: _Just in case you guys didn't notice it, I made up a blooper reel for my story. I thought it was fitting since I wrote this out more or less like a movie, and I thought it'd be kinda fun! Anyone, it's just titled "Croatoa Bloopers" so check it out if you haven't yet and get some laughs. :)

* * *

_

Miller, Tilton, Ben, and Abigail are sitting lined up against the van, hiding in its shade. Miller is resting her chin on one hand, throwing rocks out into the road, while Tilton keeps stealing little glances in her direction.

"Tilton," she says, not moving from her position or even breaking her rock-throwing rhythm, "look at me like that one more time and I'll start throwing rocks at _you,_ only they won't be the little ones."

"You guys _are_ FBI agents, right?" Ben inquires lazily, head resting back against the van, eyes shut.

"Yeah, why?" Tilton asks.

Abigail, who is leaning her head on Ben's shoulder replies, "Sometimes you act a little…unprofessional, is all."

"Hey, I'm as professional as they come!" Miller says defensively, "This whole scenario is just outside of my normal realm of expertise."

"Need I remind you again that you were the first to volunteer?" Ben asks.

"And, again, I _thought_ I was just running surveillance and communication from the van, a van that was supposed to be working. Plus, I wouldn't have volunteered if I knew Tilton would be my backup. Talk about unprofessional…"

"Hey," Tilton whines, "Just because I don't walk around with a stick up my butt like most of the other agents doesn't make me bad at my job. Sadusky values my skills – you heard him, yourself. Besides, you'd be bored without me."

"I _am_ bored. The only thing you're doing right now is adding irritation to that." She stops throwing rocks and looks down the road. "How long have we been sitting here, anyway?"

Ben looks at his watch. "About three hours."

"There hasn't been one car in three hours?" Miller asks, "I thought this was a major highway, and it's not like the middle of the night or anything. Where is everyone?"

"Good question," Abigail replies, "A better one is how long are we going to sit here?"

She opens her eyes and looks at Miller. Ben and Tilton do the same. Miller looks at each in turn before standing up and walking out into the road. She looks both ways down the highway, one hand shielding the sun from her eyes. After a few seconds of thought, she turns back to face them.

"I guess if no one's come after this long, there's probably very little chance someone will come along and vandalize the vehicle…"

Ben stands up. "It's about time," he says, relieved. "How far is the nearest town from here?"

"Well," Tilton thinks, "We passed through Altamont a few miles back so we can either head back that way or go ahead to St Elmo. I don't know which one we're actually closer to, but there's only about six miles between them, total, so either way shouldn't have too bad of a walk."

"Really?" Ben asks, "We couldn't leave the van long enough to walk a few miles into town? We could have been there and called a tow by now."

"I didn't know the highway would magically be abandoned," Miller says, "I figured we'd be waiting half an hour at most. I was just doing my job."

"You're job is to help us find Riley," Ben points out, "Instead you just wasted three hours of our time over a dead van."

"A dead van holding thousands of dollars worth of tax payer money."

"Which is more important than the life of my friend, how, exactly?"

"Guys," Abigail says, standing up.

"A friend who's working for a terrorist?"

"Guys," Abigail says a little more urgently.

"He's not working for a terrorist!"

"Guys!" Abigail yells. They stop arguing and finally look at her. She points her hand down the road. "There's a car coming."

They turn to see the sun flashing off the hood of a sports car, which is moving very quickly in their direction. Miller fumbles her badge out of her pocket and runs into the middle of the road, holding it out in front of her. The car doesn't look like it's going to slow down.

"Miller," Tilton says, sounding a little worried, "I don't think that car's stopping."

"It better, otherwise someone is going to jail for the manslaughter of an FBI agent."

The car races closer. They can now see it's a blue convertible.

"It's not stopping, Miller. Get out of the road," Ben advises.

She stands still, her feet planted apart and her badge thrust out before her. The car is almost on her when the driver suddenly cranks the wheel, spinning the car completely around and sliding it to a perfect stop in front of the van. Miller lets out the breath she's been holding and stomps angrily over to the side of the car.

"Sir, are you aware how much trouble you can be in for endangering the life of a federal agent?" she lectures, "not to mention the speeding and pure reckless driving you just exhibited."

As she gets up to the driver, a different badge is suddenly shoved in her face. She stares at it for a second.

"CIA?" she asks.

The man lifts his sunglasses up onto his head and looks at her, smiling.

"Agent Evan Laslowe at your service. Your team called me in to check on your whereabouts when they hadn't heard from ya."

"Why would they send the CIA?" she asks.

He shrugs, "I was in the area. So, you're obviously not in any danger. What's the prob?"

"Busted van," Miller points at the van and steps back away from the convertible to give Evan room to get out. He hops over the side instead of opening the door.

"My friend used to do the same thing with his car," Ben says, reminiscent.

"It's like a rule of thumb not to use the doors when you drive a convertible," Evan smiles, "What kind of car did he drive?"

"A Ferrari 360 Spider – red."

Evan whistles. "Nice! Mine's just a Chevy Corvette – brand new model, though. Do you know a lot about cars?"

"No, actually, I don't. I wouldn't remember the name of Riley's car, either, if he hadn't drilled it into my head."

"Riley drives a Spider! Lucky bastard!"

Ben looks at Even, confused. "I'm sorry, do you know Riley?"

Evan turns to check inside the hood of the van. "Uh, no," he says, "no, I just know who he is. They had to kinda fill me in on you guys on my way over here – you know, in case you had run into Drake or something."

Ben nods slowly but still looks a little disturbed. "That makes sense I guess…Hey, why are you the only person that has passed by here in three hours?"

Evan stands back up and looks at Ben. "There's a detour rerouting cars onto Highway 40 – it starts in St Elmo and ends in Altamont."

"I don't remember seeing any detour signs," Abigail says.

"They must have gone up after you passed through. There's some road work up ahead near St Elmo and someone was supposed to be keeping track of how many cars went through before they officially started the detour. I guess that particular someone fell asleep on the job, right?"

He flashes his handsome grin and turns back to Miller.

"I don't see anything wrong with your van, here," he says.

"I know, I didn't either," she smiles back, "So what do we do? We're not all going to fit in your little Chevy."

"I have room for one," he says, giving her a wink.

Tilton steps forward, jealousy written all over his face. "No, nobody goes, remember? We have to stick with the van?"

"Relax," Evan says, "I'll call in a tow and we'll just hang 'til it gets here."

"Or you can call in the tow and leave while we wait for it," Tilton suggests.

"Tilton, will you relax," Miller says, "It won't hurt to have another agent around."

Tilton frowns and tromps over to the back of the van, sitting just inside the door. Abigail follows him while Evan calls the towing company.

"Don't worry," she consoles, "I'm sure Agent Laslowe will be on his way as soon as the tow truck gets here. You'll have Miller all to yourself again in no time."

"I wouldn't be so sure," he sulks.

At the front of the van, Evan hangs up the phone and walks over to stand directly next to Ben.

"So, you're like a treasure hunter?" he asks.

"I prefer treasure protector, actually."

"Yeah? What's the difference?"

"Treasure hunters are usually out for the money. I do it for the sake of preserving history."

"…and Riley? Why does he do it?"

Ben laughs, "Sometimes he acts like he's in it for the money, but I think for him, it's not the actual discovery that matters. He likes everything leading up to it – the clues, the puzzles, the traps…You know, when we found the Templar Treasure he was more excited to find the stairs out of the vault than he was about seeing a massive room full of gold."

"Oh, it's like playing a video game," Evan says, making the connection, "You have all this fun playing the game and when you finally get to the end, you get all excited about it because you beat it, but then you're kinda let down 'cause it's over, so you start a new one."

"Yes, that sounds exactly like how Riley would see it," Ben muses, "You should meet him, I think you'd get along well."

"Oh, we get along just fine," Evan smiles, looking off at the road. Ben's smile fades as he turns to see another vehicle approaching. From a distance, it appears to be a large truck.

"Wow, that was fast," Miller says, who's been standing near the road to keep watch for the tow.

"Yes it was," Evan says, still watching the truck approach, "Nice job stalling, Vikki."

Ben looks at Miller.

"You work for Drake!" he says, stunned.


	24. Part 23

_**Part 23**_

"Gah, I should have seen it," Ben scolds himself as he makes his way over to Miller. "You were the first to volunteer to stay with us, then you kept trying to get away from the rest of us – to call Drake, I can only assume – your attitude's been generally poor except when it came to getting the carving, because obviously that's what you were sticking around with us for. You tampered with the computers, yourself, to make them unusable, and somehow killed the van, then forced all of us to wait here just long enough for your backup to arrive. Does that sound about right?"

The truck in the distance is getting much closer. It becomes obvious that it's not a tow truck but a small shipping truck. Miller turns to Ben and opens her mouth to speak.

"You know I hate it when you call me Vikki."

It didn't come from Miller. She and Ben turn to see Tilton walking towards them from behind the van, pushing Abigail ahead of him with his gun pointed to her back.

"I know," Evan smirks, "Why do you think I do it?"

Miller, after a brief hesitation, pulls her gun out and points it at Evan. In hardly the blink of an eye, he springs forward and using three swift maneuvers with his arms that somehow combine into one fluid movement, he disarms her and slides behind her, pointing her own gun in her direction. Miller puts her arms up and turns to face him, angry embarrassment on her face .

"You learn that in the CIA?" she asks.

"Nah, that's what _got_ me into the CIA," he says, then proceeds to dismantle the firearm, dropping the parts all over the road. Miller winces. "Sorry," he apologizes, "I don't really care for guns."

"Great, Evan, now I'm the only one with a gun trying to hold three people hostage," Tilton complains, shoving Abigail over to Ben. Ben catches her and, gripping her arms, checks her over really quick.

"Are you okay?" he asks.

"Fine," she nods, shakily, "I'm fine. I didn't see it coming."

"Neither did I," Ben says, and hugs her.

Miller backs up to stand next to both of them, her eyes now on Tilton. Her look is one of hurt, betrayal, and deadly anger.

"Don't look at me like that," Tilton pleads. "This doesn't change how I feel about you."

"It doesn't change how I feel about _you_ either," Miller snaps, "It just gives me a _better_ reason to hate you."

"Ouch," Evan laughs.

The truck finally pulls up and parks on the opposite side of the road. Joseph, who was driving, steps out of the cabin. He walks over to the side door of the cargo area and opens it up, pulling down the little steps that are folded up underneath. Elizabeth steps carefully down and crosses the street. She hugs Tilton, careful not to accidentally redirect his aim off of his hostages.

"Victor," she smiles, "I'm so proud of you! You performed your first real mission beautifully."

He smiles, and Miller shakes her head, disgusted. Elizabeth takes a step towards Ben, who pulls Abigail even closer to him.

"Drake?" he asks.

"Please, call me Elizabeth," she says, "Benjamin Gates I presume? And this must be Abigail Chase."

"Where's Riley?" Ben demands.

"Ah ah," she responds, shaking a finger, "Show me what you found in Roanoke, first."

"It's just a carving," Ben says, reaching into his jacket pocket. He pulls out the little crow and holds it up. She steps forward to reach for it, but he pulls it away.

"You said to show you, not give it to you," Ben points out, "Now where's Riley?"

Elizabeth frowns. "Stubborn, just like he is," she says, then turns slightly back to the truck. "All right, Riley, come and see your friends!" she shouts.

Ben holds his breath and squeezes Abigail's hand, hard. She squeezes it back and stares at the door. Riley finally steps out into the doorway, shielding his eyes from the sun. It only takes him a second to focus on his friends and when he does, he gasps in pleasant relief, his face lighting up in a huge smile. He jumps out of the truck, skipping the stairs, and stumbles a little when he lands. He saves himself from falling by hopping forward a tiny bit on his good leg, then races over towards Ben and Abigail. As he starts to pass by Elizabeth, he excitedly yells their names.

"Ben! Abiga-"

He is suddenly pulled backwards by a hand on his arm. Joseph drags him back behind Elizabeth where he loses his balance and falls to the ground. Ben starts to move towards him but is stopped by a hand on his own arm. He turns and looks, confused, back at Abigail. She shakes her head and flicks her eyes over to Tilton, who still has a gun trained on them. He looks back at Riley and starts to protest when Miller holds her hand out.

"Don't try anything, Gates," she recommends, "Sadusky wasn't lying about Tilton's shooting skills – he could put a bullet between all our eyes in two seconds flat."

"It's okay, Ben," Riley says as he stands up, brushing off his clothes. "Joe just doesn't know his own strength sometimes, kinda like a big dumb dog."

Joseph clenches his fists. Evan walks over to him and lays a hand on his shoulder.

"Chill, dude, we don't want to be rude in front of our new friends, now, do we?" He gives Riley a wink, who nods back in thanks. Ben relaxes just a little, and investigates Riley's various injuries.

"Riley, are you okay?" he asks, concern pouring out of him.

"Eh, I've been better," Riley shrugs. "But I'm not dead so I guess that's a plus."

Ben snorts out a little worried laugh. "Yeah, that's definitely a huge plus."

"All right, enough of the family reunion," Elizabeth says, rolling her eyes. "I let you see your friend, Mr. Gates. Now give me the bird."

"No," Ben says, shaking his head.

"Ben," Riley begins, but Elizabeth holds up a hand to silence him. She takes a step towards Ben.

"I can always just shoot you and take it," she warns.

"If you were going to, you already would have."

"Ben, don't," Riley tries again.

Abigail looks at the worry in Riley's face. "Ben, just give to her," she tries.

"And then what?" he asks, still looking directly at Elizabeth, "She just lets us go on our merry way?"

"Actually, I might just do that," Elizabeth answers, "under direct supervision, of course. I can't have you running off to Sadusky as soon as we leave, after all. Just give me the bird, and I'll grant you some moderate freedom."

"No deal," Ben says. "I'll give you the bird when you give us Riley."

Elizabeth stares at Ben, then simply says, "Joseph."

Right on cue, Joseph swings one muscled arm behind him where his forearm strikes directly across Riley's chest, sending him flying backwards to the ground.

"Riley!" Ben and Abigail cry in unison.

Riley lies stunned for a few seconds before trying desperately to regain the air that was knocked out of him. After a few failed attempts, he is finally able to suck in a few small breaths before he starts coughing. Joseph walks over and begins to hover one foot over the prone Riley.

"Wait! Wait!" Ben yells, holding out the statue. "You can have it! Take it! Just, just don't hurt him anymore!"

Elizabeth smiles and walks over to take the carving from Ben. "Almost too easy," she smirks, "It's amazing what people will do to save a friend." She turns and looks back at Riley as she speaks the last phrase, then turns back to Ben and smiles menacingly. He is lost for words as the implication of what she just said sinks in and it shows on his face. Satisfied, Elizabeth turns and starts walking towards the truck. Ben snaps out of his thoughts and calls after her.

"Hold on!" he says, and starts to walk towards her. Tilton points the gun directly at him, but Miller puts herself between the gun and Ben.

"Just let him talk, Victor," she demands, though the usual bite in her voice is gone.

"He can talk from right there," he answers, also as a cue for Ben to stop moving. Ben follows the direction and stops, but continues to talk to Elizabeth.

"Let us go with you," he offers. "We can help you find what you're looking for."

Elizabeth turns back to face him. "And why do I need you when I have Riley?"

"Because," Riley coughs, "He's better at the whole figuring-out-what-the-clues-mean part than I am." He takes one big breath, and forces himself to sit up before he continues talking. "I know where the clues are, but that doesn't mean I know how to get to them. This could go a lot faster if I had a little help."

Abigail steps forward. "We always work better when the three of us are together," she insists, then adds, "We won't get in your way."

Joseph shakes his head, Tilton just steals little glances at Elizabeth awaiting her orders, and Evan just shrugs in his usual carefree fashion. "It probably can't hurt," he says. "Plus it might make things a little easier on us if we have the, uh, 'methods of persuasion' in the same place as the 'persuadee.'"

"True…," Elizabeth says thoughtfully, "very well." Joseph mumbles something about how Elizabeth always listens to Evan. She ignores him and continues, turning to Ben. "Pick your friend up off the ground there and get in the truck. Victor, you're in the back with them – I think I'll ride with Joseph in the cab for a while. Evan-"

"I'll meet you in Arches," he interrupts, giving her a little salute with his fingers.

"No, Evan, you'll be riding in the back with Victor. He may need some backup."

"But, my car," he whines.

"I'll send someone to pick it up," Elizabeth ensures, "It'll be safely waiting at your home when you return to it."

Evan sticks out his lower lip and gives her a sad nod. Joseph laughs. "Can't have your way all the time, Sunshine," he says.

"Shut up," is all Evan has in response.

"Come, now, children," Elizabeth directs, "We've wasted enough time here."

She walks to the truck and climbs into the cab with some assistance from Joseph. Victor waves his gun at the others, motioning for them to go ahead. Ben and Abigail rush to Riley's side, helping him stand and taking turns hugging him. None of the three can hide their tears.

"Riley, I'm so sorry," Ben says, "If I had come over when I was supposed to-"

"Ben, you work for the President," Riley says, brushing off the apology, "I didn't really expect you to be there on time."

"No, it's no excuse. I should have been there."

"And if you were, she probably would have just shot you. I'm glad you weren't there – both of you. It helped knowing you were out there looking for me."

"We hadn't stopped looking since you disappeared," Abigail says, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"I know," Riley laughs, "The bags under your eyes are hideous. You both look like crap."

They all laugh, releasing much pent-up tension, and Evan walks up. "Come on, kiddies, let's wrap this up in the truck, shall we?" He leans in closer, sticking to Riley's right side so he can whisper in his good ear, "People are staring…"

They all look around and see Victor waving his gun in a hurry-up motion, Miller standing by awkwardly with her arms crossed over her chest, Joseph giving them a death-glare from the driver's seat, and Elizabeth curling her finger towards herself in a "come over here now" fashion. Ben, Abigail, and Riley break apart from each other, but only far enough to walk comfortably. They start heading towards the truck when Riley leans over Evan's shoulder.

"Thank you," he whispers.

"For what, man?" Evan whispers back.

"You know what," Riley replies, then smiles. Evan looks ahead, mimicking Riley's smile. They all climb, one by one, into the back of the truck as Joseph starts the engine.

* * *

**A/N:**_ Ooh, it was Tilton! That bastard! Okay, fess up, how many people saw that one coming? I know at least some of you must have figured I was trying a little too hard to pin Miller as the turncoat - would you have been disappointed if she actually was?_


	25. Part 24

_**Part 24**_

"Oh, wow," Ben exclaims as he steps into the truck. The front half of the cargo area is pretty much taken up by computer equipment set out on tables that form an "L" in the corner. The three computers Riley built previously are set up inside, as well as two more laptops and a couple extra monitors linked to the three main systems. Most of the them are flashing coding across the screens while the extra monitors are showing video surveillance – one of which Ben recognizes as Sadusky's building. He looks closer as all the agents inside are scrambling around their own computers, looking incredibly frustrated.

"I'm gonna owe Sadusky big time for this," Riley comments as he notices what Ben is looking at.

"I'm sure he'll understand," Ben replies. "Did you do all this yourself?"

"Please," Riley smirks, "Building the stuff is kid's play. It's the hacking into heavily secure systems that's the hard part – ow!"

"Sorry!" Abigail cringes as she stands back up, "You shouldn't be walking on that knee, Riley."

"Gee, really, Abigail? 'Cause I thought for sure I could run a marathon on it," he says sarcastically.

Abigail rolls the computer chair over to him. "Sit," she demands. He plops into it without a fight. She leans down and gently grips his chin, turning his head to inspect the bruise on his cheek, which is a lovely shade of purple at this point. The swelling on his lip has subsided quite a bit but a small split is still present in the center of it. She turns his head the other way and sees the cotton ball in his ear.

"Eardrum?" she asks.

"Probably," he confirms.

"Did it bleed?"

"Of course it did, right?" Victor asks as he makes his way to one of the two couches that is set up in the back of the rig. "Elizabeth says the hit isn't good if you don't see red."

Abigail ignores him and continues with her line of questioning, "How's your hearing?"

"Uh, I hear like I have a wad of cotton shoved in my ear."

She smiles, "You think you're so smart," she says.

"That's because I am," he replies, nodding, then looks over at Evan who has thrown himself into the longer couch and made himself comfortable. "Hey, Evan, was that your Chevy out there?"

"Do you think anyone else around here is cool enough to own that car?" he replies, then sits up. "And Ben here tells me you have a Spider? Why didn't you tell me, man?"

"Didn't know you were a car guy. You seemed more the surfer type to me."

Evan laughs and lays back on the couch, "I am, but a sweet board deserves a sweet ride, plus surfer chicks don't like riding in station wagons, ya know?"

Ben leans down to Riley so no one else can hear him. "Am I missing something, here? Because I thought he was one of the guys holding you hostage and last time I checked, you don't just have casual conversations with your kidnappers."

"Ah, Evan's all right," Riley waves it off, "Actually, he's saved my skin a few times since he showed up, meaning there are less places for Abigail to poke at – ow, by the way."

Abigail has Riley's shirt lifted up and is lightly pressing her hand against his chest across the area where Joseph's arm came in contact with it.

"That's going to leave a nice bruise," she says.

Riley rolls his eyes, "You really think so?" He pulls his shirt back down into place and looks over at Miller, who is standing with her back leaning against the door, arms still folded across her chest. "I'm Riley," he introduces himself.

"And you're a terrorist," Miller snaps.

Riley jerks back as if he's been slapped in the face. "No, I, I–"

Miller steps forward. "You've grounded planes, caused car wrecks, made threats, you're spying on government agencies, and generally tampering with our means of keeping this country safe. You are a terrorist."

Riley turns away from her, tears welling up in his eyes. Ben squeezes his shoulder. "You are _not_ a terrorist, Riley," he says. Riley keeps his eyes diverted. "Riley, look at me," Ben insists. After blinking some of the moisture away, Riley finally locks eyes with Ben. Ben repeats again, "You are _not _a terrorist. Don't ever think for one second that you are. Do you understand?"

Riley nods. Abigail pats his leg and walks over to Miller. She gets very close to the agent, moving her face in right beside Miller's to talk into her ear. Miller continues to stand as she is, facing forward.

"Listen," Abigail starts, her voice quiet but cold, "I can only imagine how betrayed you feel right now, but don't you _dare_ take it out on him. Yes, Drake is a terrorist, but it's not like Riley's creating a diversion for her to plant a bomb on a subway or release a biotoxin in a hospital. They're only hunting for a piece of history, so from where I'm standing, Riley hasn't been helping a terrorist – he's just been helping a greedy treasure hunter, and even that's been against his will. In the process, he's been trying his hardest to keep everyone safe with the exception, obviously, of himself." She pauses to let that sink it, then continues, "Now, you tell me, can you say the same thing about your boyfriend over there? Because I sure don't see any bruises on _him_."

Miller continues to stare straight ahead, but clenches her jaw.

"I didn't think so," Abigail says, then backs away and walks back over to Riley. He gives her a small smile then looks over at Miller, who is now turned away from them and facing the front corner of the truck.

"For what its worth," Riley calls to her quietly, "I'm sorry."

She turns further away and is obviously trying desperately to fight off tears.

"And I have full intention of replacing anything I burned out in the van," Riley continues, "…if we get of this alive."

Miller wipes away a tear that she couldn't hold in. She swallows and looks over to him. "You did that? How?"

"EMP." He smiles to see that he's perked her interest, and apparently also Abigail and Ben's, who are now looking at him curiously.

"How is that possible?" Miller asks. "We've been trying to find ways for officers to carry EMP generators for years, but they never seem to work very well when it comes to stopping cars."

Riley wags his finger at her as he talks. "That's because you guys keep trying to build EMP guns, which look like something out of a B-rate sci-fi movie, by the way. The problem with those is that you're trying to shoot the pulse through the metal hull of the car to get to the computer chip inside. Stupid as they look, the guns would actually work great if everyone drove plastic cars, but of course that's not realistic. Your computers, on the other hand, were already inside the van, so all I had to get through to fry your car was your plastic dashboard. Using your very expensive, government-bought speakers, I was able to amplify the pulse straight through with no problem."

Miller frowns. "Well you owe me a cell phone, too, and a digital watch."

"Consider it done," Riley answers. "So, uh, can we start over now? I'm Riley Poole, and you are…?" he holds out his hand, palm up, inviting her to introduce herself. She takes a quick glance at Abigail and Ben before she answers, both of whom appear ready to pounce should she give an unacceptable answer. She sighs and walks over to Riley, holding out her own hand.

"Miller," she says. Riley just looks at her, not yet taking her hand.

"Come on," he says, tilting his head to the side, "You're being held hostage in the back of a truck with some terrorists, history geeks, and a computer genius. You can drop the whole formal agent thing in here."

"Forget it," Victor grumbles from the couch, "She doesn't know how to be anything but an agent. I don't think anyone at the office believes she even has a first name anymore."

Miller looks at Victor and scowls. She grabs Riley's hand and pumps it up and down. "Roberta," she says, then talks even louder so Victor can clearly hear, "Roberta Miller, but my friends call me Bobbi."

"Okay, Bobbi, nice to meet you. Now can I have my hand back before you shake it off?"

"Sorry," she says, then releases her grip. Victor shakes his head in disbelief and looks away, allowing Bobbi to reveal a small, satisfied smile. Ben, Abigail, and Riley smile with her, sharing her tiny victory over the man that betrayed her.


	26. Part 25

_**Part 25**_

The truck rolls steadily along the highway. Inside, Victor and Evan are now sharing the smaller couch, asleep, while Ben, Abigail, and Riley are sharing the larger one. Riley has taken up the majority of the couch, slumped over sideways sleeping with his head on Abigail's lap. She is gently running her fingers through his hair as she very quietly talks to Ben.

"He didn't tell us much before he passed out," she whispers.

"He's probably exhausted. I can't imagine he's had much sleep since Drake kidnapped him," Ben replies, just as quietly.

Riley groans and stirs in his sleep, his breathing starting to become rapid. Ben leans over and places a hand on Riley's shoulder, then talks soothingly in his ear. "It's okay, Riley, you're safe."

"No," Riley mumbles, still asleep, "don't hurt 'em."

"Riley," Ben continues, "I'm right here. I'm fine, and so is Abigail. We're fine."

Riley sucks in a sharp breath and blinks open his eyes. It takes him a second to focus on Ben's face.

"All right Prince Charming," he says, wiping his eyes, "I'm flattered, but I'm sure you can find a prettier princess than me to kiss awake."

Ben pulls away, mouth cocked in a half-grin. Riley sits up and looks around, yawning. He sees Bobbi sitting in his computer chair, watching Sadusky and her fellow agents on the monitor. He stands up, stretches, and walks over to her. She glances up as he moves in beside her.

"I don't understand it," she says, "Sadusky hasn't heard from us since he left us in Roanoke. Why isn't he trying to reach us?"

Abigail looks confused. "But didn't Agent Tilton-"

Bobbi cuts her off, "-Victor…Agent Tilton was my colleague and I can't think of him that way, anymore. Now he's just Victor."

Abigail nods and continues, "didn't Victor call Sadusky just before the van broke down?"

Riley opens his mouth to say something, but Bobbi interrupts.

"He wouldn't have called Sadusky. He wouldn't want him to know we made progress on this Lost Colony angle. He had to have been talking to Drake."

Riley tries to talk again, but Ben gets in before him.

"Makes sense," Ben says. "Drake wants the government looking at Riley as a terrorist. If Sadusky found out for sure that the Colony hunt wasn't a hoax, he'd have men posted back at all the locations on the map."

"So she's right, then," Abigail says, cutting of Riley yet again. "Why isn't Sadusky looking for us by now?"

Riley sticks his hand up in the air and waves it around, like a child in a classroom who's eager to answer a question. Ben, Abigail, and Bobbi all stare at him.

"Oh, I have permission to speak now?" Riley asks.

"Go ahead, Riley," Ben smirks.

"Thank you, Ben. _Anyway, _Sadusky isn't looking for because you kind of…uh...did…check in with him."

"What?" Bobbi asks, "I never called him. When Victor said he'd handle it I had no reason to."

"Yeah, well, _we_ knew Victor wasn't actually calling Sadusky so we had to make sure he didn't get suspicious. We – well, I – sort of faked a phone call or two to Sadusky for you."

"What! How?"

Riley steps back from her. "Promise not to hit me? I've gotten enough of that, lately."

"What? No, I'm not going to hit you," she shakes her head. "Just, tell me what you did."

"Okay, well, I was using your own gear in the van to spy on you after I sent the video feed through. I used your computer mike to record your voice and then used the recording to create a voice simulator. I made the calls to Sadusky, myself, pretending to be you. As far as he knows, you guys are still in Roanoke and you haven't found anything yet."

Bobbi stares at him for a second, perplexed. Riley scratches the back of his head and looks away from her, uncomfortable. "I can, uh, I can show you," he offers. He leans over to grab the mouse and clicks through a few files. When he finds the one he wants, he reaches up to turn up the volume on the computer and pulls the microphone towards himself. He speaks into it very quietly so his own voice doesn't mask the one coming out of the speaker.

"Hi," he starts, his voice mimicking Bobbi's perfectly. He grins as he continues, "my name is Bobbi and I like long walks on the beach and candle-light dinners, and semi-successful computer geeks."

"Okay, stop," Bobbi says, turning the volume off on the computer. "That's a little too weird for me."

"Yeah…I get that a lot," Riley sighs.

Ben smirks, then looks over at Victor and Evan. They haven't moved since Riley woke up. He looks at the computers, then turns back to Riley and starts to say something, but Riley holds up his hand to stop him.

"I know what you're thinking, Ben," he says, then reaches across the table to grab a piece of paper out of the printer. He crumples it up and aims it at the two men on the couch.

"Riley, don't!" Ben starts, but it's too late. Riley releases the paper and it sails through the air right towards Evan. Just when it's about to hit him square in the face, Evan's hand shoots up and grabs the paper wad.

"How'd you know?" Evan asks as he drops the paper to the floor, eyes still shut.

"You smiled a little…you know, when she implied I was weird."

"I didn't say _you_ were weird," Bobbi retorts, "just hearing my voice coming from someone else – that was weird…though you did make it, so…"

Evan laughs, "Dude, you _are_ weird, but smart. You were watching us since you got up."

Riley shrugs, "Yeah, well, I kinda figured you wouldn't be stupid enough to both fall asleep in the line of duty…but I was making sure, just in case…"

Evan stands up and cruises over to them. "Just in case? Do you know how much trouble I'd be in if you pulled something on my watch? You'd really do that to me, man?"

"Could you really blame me?" Riley asks.

"Nah, I guess not." He reaches over behind Bobbi and punches Riley lightly in the arm. In that second, Bobbi shoves her chair back into him, trying to knock him to the floor. He turns his body to the side, wrapping one leg around the chair's base and using an arm to push down on the chair's back. It toppled backwards, but he grabs Bobbi and pulls her up to him so she doesn't fall along with it. He holds her arms tight, forcing her face very close to his.

"Now that was not very nice," he grins, his eyes flashing dangerously.

"Let her go," Ben says cautiously. "It was just an accident, right Miller?"

She looks at Ben, then back at Evan. "No," she hisses, "I was trying to get us out of here." She spits in Evan's face. He jerks his head back, blinking away the spittle, then glares at her. After a few seconds, the corners of his lips begin to curl up.

"You are so hot right now," he says, and pulls her in close, kissing her lips. She struggles against him and he releases her, kicking the chair back up with one leg and dropping her into it. She wipes her mouth and stares at him, angry and embarrassed. He gives her a little salute before walking over and giving Victor a little kick.

"Wake up, sunshine, the kids are gettin' feisty," he jokes.

"What'd I miss?" Victor asks, reaching for his gun.

"Whoa, there, turbo," Evan says, pulling Victor's hand away from the weapon, "Everything's cool, we were just goofin' around, right guys?"

Bobbi just glares at him, so Abigail quickly jumps in. "Right, just playing on the computers a little. Isn't that right, Ben."

"Right, exactly," Ben says. "Riley was just showing us his voice…thing – what's it called again, Riley?"

"Uh, voice recognition software. I can do you, too, Victor…if you want?"

"No…" Victor says slowly, eyeing all of them, "That's okay...Bobbi, are you all right?"

She turns her anger towards him lightning quick. "You don't get to call me that," she warns, "Not ever, do you understand?"

"Fine, whatever – Miller – I just thought you looked upset."

"Well how would you feel if you found out someone was using your voice to make phone calls to your boss?"

"I don't know, pretty pissed I guess…ah, whatever. Evan, you woke me up for this?"

Ben, Abigail, and Riley all seem to breath in relief at the same time. Bobbi rolls her eyes and turns back to the surveillance screens, muttering "idiot" under her breath. Evan shakes his head and turns back to Victor.

"They're all awake and active," he explains, "I just thought you should be up in case anyone tried anything. I mean, sure, I probably _could_ handle them all on my own, but that's extra work, ya know? And, dude, you know how much I hate to work."

"You're so full of it," Victor frowns, "I still don't get why Elizabeth keeps you around."

"Because I'm so much fun. Speaking of fun, now that we're all warmed up, here, what do you guys wanna do?"

Everyone looks around at each other, no one really certain what to say. Riley looks at Ben and Abigail, then looks at the floor. He takes a deep breath and starts to sing quietly, then gradually becomes louder as he gets a little more confident. Ben and Abigail watch him in silent awe, taken in by the haunting melody. Even Bobbi looks away from the screens, the anger fading from her face as she listens.

"What is that?" Victor whispers to Evan from the back of the truck.

"Shhh," Evan says, a finger to his lips. "It's an Indian story – let him tell it."

Riley keeps his eyes squeezed shut, letting the song bring back memories of his mother and father. He doesn't even notice the tear trailing down his cheek as he chants out the Croatoan tune.


	27. Part 26

_**Part 26**_

**A/N: **_Sorry, I know these few parts haven't been the most exciting – they're the "information" sections of the story. I hate leaving loose ends and try my best not to have too many inconsistencies or leave too many "but what about…?" questions floating around (unless I'm purposely keeping something hidden!). Don't worry, though, it'll step up again very soon. :)__ And thanks to all my readers and reviewers!

* * *

_

Riley's song goes on for quite some time before it comes to an end. He is quiet for a second, then, face still pointing towards the ground, he opens his eyes and peeks up at the others. Everyone simply stares back at him, not really certain what to say.

"Was it that bad?" he asks, laughing nervously.

"No," Ben says calmly, shaking his head, "it was fantastic."

"Beautiful," Abigail breathes, and Riley's face turns red. "Where did you learn it?"

Riley looks back down. "My, uh, my mom taught it to me – drilled it into me, actually. My dad, too. They made me sing it every night before bed and he used to play this wooden flute while Mom and I sang. It all came back to me when I got Mom's notes in the mail."

"The other sheets," Abigail nods in understanding, "the ones that were with your stuff but weren't in your handwriting. You got them in the mail?"

"Yeah, turns out Elizabeth had them and sent them to me hoping I'd remember something. She was right - as soon as I saw them, the memories sort of started slamming into my head like a freight train...When I was a kid, I always thought the song was just a cool story but as soon as I got those notes and remembered it, I knew exactly what it really was."

"It tells you how to find the Lost Colony," Ben states, "You've been working on this for months, now, Riley. Why didn't you say something?"

Riley turns away and picks absently at a corner of the table. "I guess…I don't know, I guess I just wanted it to be _my_ find, you know?" He turns back to Ben, "I mean, the Templar Treasure, Cibola – those were things you had to find because they meant something to your family. This time, it involved _my_ family, a family I didn't even remember until recently. I had to figure it out on my own - for them – but I called you as soon as I had it. It's not like I didn't want you guys involved..."

Ben stands up and puts a hand on Riley's shoulder. "It's okay, Riley, I get it."

"I don't," Bobbi says, then waves her hand dismissively. "I mean, I get the whole wanting to figure it out on your own part – what I don't get is why _you're_ the first one to put the clues together. The song's old, right? Why didn't someone come along before you and find the Colony?"

"Well, obviously my mom was trying…She just didn't get very far before…" Riley looks up at Evan and Victor. "Do you know why Elizabeth killed them, by the way?"

They look at each other and shake their heads. Riley steps towards them. "That lady you guys follow so willingly, she killed my parents for absolutely nothing."

"I'm sure it wasn't for nothing," Victor retorts. Riley cuts him off.

"She ever tell you about a dig she was part of in Mexico? Well, not part of – she was in charge of the thing. She was the one that made the initial find and convinced everyone it was worth the money to look into further. Wanna know what my parents found out that got them killed? They found out the dig was faked from the start. Elizabeth, or whatever name she was going by at the time, staged the whole thing. She stumbled across some Aztec artifacts on her own but she new the discovery wasn't anything new or special, so she moved the stuff over to an area where no Aztec items had ever been found before. My parents caught her planting artifacts one night and she killed them for it because she didn't want them to tell, didn't want them to drag her name through the mud before she got famous. The stupid thing about all of it was that by her killing them and staging the accident, she ended up tarnishing her own name, anyway. The bigwigs came down to investigate the incident and came to the conclusion, themselves, that the dig was just a thief stash! They pulled her funding and she kind of became a laughing stock in the archeological world, so she disappeared. So yeah, she essentially killed my parents for absolutely nothing. And you guys listen to that woman willingly. Why?"

"We don't have to explain ourselves to you," Victor snaps.

Evan steps forward. "Look, I don't know about everyone who works for Liz because, for our own protection, she doesn't tell us who everyone is that works for her, but I know that for at least Joe, Vikki-"

"-Don't call me that," Victor complains.

"Ahem, _Victor_, and myself, Liz was like our savior. We've all had pretty crappy pasts, and dude I'm sorry if she was the one that caused yours, but because of what she did for us we'd follow her into pretty much anything - just as much as I'm sure you'd follow your friends, here, straight down into Hell if you had to."

"I pretty much have," Riley mumbles with a nod. "But you gotta know what she's doing is wrong."

When Evan doesn't say anything, Victor steps forward. "Sometimes you have to do something wrong to do something right," he explains, "Wasn't it you guys, after all, that stole the Declaration _and_ kidnapped the President?"

"But that was different-" Riley starts to argue.

"Was it?" Victor asks, "You have no idea what we're trying to accomplish, here. Everything we do is for a good cause. It's not our fault you understand what that cause is."

"…I just hope you do," Riley says and turns back to his friends.

"What does that mean?" Victor asks starting to move forward, but Evan pulls him back.

"Let it go, he's just trying to get a rise out of ya," he says, pulling Victor back to the couch.

"…So," Bobbi says, interrupting the silence and getting out of the chair so Riley can take the weight off his bad knee. "You still didn't really finish answering my question. Even if your mom was starting to figure out the clues, how come nobody before her tried?"

"Well I think someone must have. Actually, I'm pretty sure someone figured it out a long time ago."

"Why do you think that?" Ben asks.

"It'll make sense when I tell the story. Anyway, it would have been a really long time ago. After that, I think originally they wanted to keep it a secret, but kept the story around for the sake of tradition. Tradition probably became legend and I bet for awhile, that's just what people assumed it was – a legend. Mom, though, she saw through the story. She just didn't have the time or resources to put it all together, yet, which was probably why she drilled it into me. I don't know how well I would have done with it, either, if I didn't have the magic of cyberspace at my fingertips."

"So the song contains the story which contains the map to the Colony, which you think was already found by someone once," Abigail sums up. Riley nods.

"So," Ben prods, "Care to tell us the story?"

"It's a long one," Riley warns.

"It's a long drive," Ben reminds him.

"Okay," Riley nods and smiles, "gather 'round, kiddies, it's story time."

Ben grabs the back of Riley's chair and pushes it over closer to the couches so everyone has a place to sit. Ben, Abigail, and Bobbi make themselves comfortable to listen, and Evan leans forward attentively. Even Victor seems to have his ears perked in curiosity.

"Everyone ready?" Riley asks, and they all nod. "Then this is exactly how the story goes, as my mother told me and her father told her, and all the way up the line to my greatest-great-grandmother."

"Greatest-great-grandmother?" Bobbi smirks. Abigail shooshes her and Riley continues.

"I don't know how many 'greats' it was ago, okay? Anyway, it's a story _about_ a story – one that the Croatoan chief told to my greatest-great-grandfather and was then retold by his Croatoan wife; a story that was to be passed down in song through the generations until it finally reached me, and now I'm sharing it with you. This is exactly how my greatest-great-grandmother told it…"


	28. Part 27

**_Part 27_**

**A/N (more disclaimer-type stuff): **_I just wanted to point out that, of course, while all the characters and general National Treasure aspects of this story belong to Disney, the ideas, research, OC's, and the following "Croatan Legend" belong to me. Not that I think anyone on here is going to steal my ideas, but I wanted to put this disclaimer in here just to be safe. The "Legend" isn't exactly a work of art or anything, so don't expect greatness just because of this disclaimer! But it's my silly story and I'd like to keep it that way! ;)

* * *

_

A strong white boy sits cross-legged before the Croatan Chief

"Little Hawk," for that is what the Chief calls the boy,

"You have passed the age of boy and reached the age of man,

And you must win a right of passage.

What test have you chosen to prove your worth?"

"Grandfather," for that is what the boy calls the chief,

"I wish to go on a quest."

"What kind of quest, boy?"

"A quest for truth. A quest for answers.

I am plagued with dreams of a white man settlement

And dreams of a young white girl.

I must seek the meaning of these dreams."

The Chieftan sits in silence, then nods his understanding.

"Then I shall tell you the story of your past

And I shall tell you the story of the warrior.

And you shall follow the warrior, step by step,

Until you reach your journey's end."

The boy nods his understanding, then sits in silence.

The Chieftan tells his tale:

Little Hawk

You were born in a white man settlement,

The settlement that plagues your dreams.

It was called by the white man

The Cittie of Raleigh

And the Chief was a man called John White.

John White had many aides,

And one young aide,

Ananias Dare,

Wed the daughter of John White.

Another aide,

Dionis Harvie,

Wed the daughter of a nameless man.

Both daughters were blessed with child –

One with a daughter and one with a son –

The daughter born ahead and the son born behind.

The daughter,

Virginia Dare,

Was grand daughter of Chief John White

And first white child born upon our lands.

She became well-loved.

The son,

Whose name was left unknown

Was the son of just an aide

And second white child born upon our lands.

He became forgotten.

Chief John White departed from the Cittie of Raleigh

And it became forgotten.

With no Chief to offer his protection and his wisdom,

Evil spirits swarmed over the Cittie

And it began to die.

Food became scarce.

Water became scarce.

And the daughter and the son held each other in the night,

Afraid the evil spirits would snatch them away.

Watching one evening as the babes held tight,

Cro,

The Great Warrior,

Took pity upon the Cittie.

"Fear no more," he said,

"I shall journey for you

And find a place where the spirits shall not reach you.

And I shall mark my name upon this tree,

This great symbol of life,

And if this tree should perish

You will know that I have fallen

And that I have failed you."

And with that the mighty Cro

Carved his name upon the tree.

Touched by Cro's actions and Cro's promise

The Cittie cried out as one,

"Then we shall carve upon this palisade,

This great symbol of protection,

The name of that which we shall call our new city,

For it shall be named in your honor

And the honor of your people.

We shall call it Croatoan

And its name carved here upon this palisade

Shall protect you on your journey."

And with that the people of the Cittie

Carved the name upon the palisade

And once that was done

The Great Warrior stood back

And waited for a sign.

Soon, a giant crow took flight overhead

And a feather fell from beneath its giant wing

And floated gently down to the warrior's hand.

"The God, Crow,

Has smiled upon this quest.

He shall be my guide."

And the warrior released the feather

And watched it fly North

Where it took rest against the marked palisade.

"Look,"

The Cittie cries,

"The feather has landed on the 'N.'

It must wish you to travel North."

"No,"

The warrior replies,

"The feather has buried the 'N.'

I shall not travel North

And your new city shall not go by the name

Croatoan.

It shall simply be called

Croatoa,

For it is a city for your people

And shall not take the name of mine."

And then the wind shifted

And the feather went a new direction,

Landing against a growing tree

Where it left its mark before floating off again.

"The feather has shown me the way"

The warrior said,

"Remember its mark

For this is the path I shall take

And the path you shall one day follow."

And the warrior bid his farewell

To let his feather guide

Take him on his journey.


	29. Part 28

_**Part 28**_

"And so the warrior traveled-"

"Wait, wait, hold up," Bobbi interrupts.

"You weren't good during story time in school, were you?" Riley asks.

"Not particularly," she smirks. "Anyway, I'm just a little confused."

"About?"

"Well, the feather was _east_ of the city, right? So if that was supposed to point out the 'path' we're supposed to travel on or whatever, why are we going west?"

"Ah," Riley nods, "someone was paying attention. A+! Ben, I'm surprised it wasn't you."

"Huh," Ben huffs, "me too, actually. Guess I was just caught up in the story. So, care to answer the question?"

"What, no guesses?"

"Riley!" Ben and Abigail say together.

"Okay, okay…but if you had let me just tell the story I wouldn't really have to explain." The others shoot him a glare and he sighs. "Fine, I'll skip ahead a little. Anyway, the reason we are going west and not east is because we don't have to. See, Cro had to go east first because he didn't have access to these great things called automobiles. Lucky for him, the gods knew Cro couldn't make it all the way to Utah on foot, so they led him to a mode of transportation, first."

"The horses," Abigail murmurs.

"Ding ding ding!" Riley blurts out, pointing at her, "You just earned a star! Ben, you're off your game today."

"What horses?" Victor asks.

"There used to be herds of wild horses running up and down the east coast," Ben explains, "Cro would have had to go east to get a horse, first, before he could make the journey west."

Riley smiles. "Well, there's a little more to it than that, but I'll give you an A for effort, Ben."

"Thank you," Ben grins. "Now can we get on with the story?"

Bobbi still has a doubtful look which Riley notices. He arches his eyebrows up at her as he says, "Something else?"

"Yeah, actually. When the chief tells the kid he has to follow the warrior, he specifically tells him to follow the warrior step by step. Is there a chance we missed something by not going east first?"

"That actually is a good question," Ben confirms, looking over at Riley.

"Uh, not unless we can walk on water," Riley explains. "Can I just tell the story? I promise it'll make sense and I promise the going east part really isn't going to have any effect on us. We don't need a horse – we have a truck, with couches, and computers, and a little fridge stock full of bottled water, soda, and juice boxes."

Ben arches an eyebrow and Riley waves his hands defensively. "The juice boxes are Evan's," he points out, and Evan just smiles and shrugs. Riley is about to go back into the story when Victor suddenly stands up.

"Hold up," he says, and everyone sighs.

"Huh, must be an FBI thing," Riley remarks.

"No," Victor waves him off, "I don't have any questions – the truck's stopping."

They realize Victor is right as the truck comes to a complete stop.

"Thank God," Bobbi says as she stands and starts heading toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going?" Victor asks.

"I have to go to the bathroom, if that's okay. I assume we stopped for gas so there must be a restroom."

"I gotta pee, too, actually," Riley admits.

"You know the drill, Riley," Evan says, "We gotta wait 'til we get the okay, first."

Right on cue, the little side door cracks open and Elizabeth pokes her head in. "My, don't we all look comfy," she says, her sly smile plastered across her face. "Evan, Victor, do we need a swapping of the guard?"

"I'm cool back here, actually," Evan says, and Victor nods his agreement, "but I think we need a little field trip to the facilities."

Elizabeth's smile gets even wider. "Well of course you do! I'm not a complete monster, you know. Why else do you think I came back here to check on you? As soon as Joseph finishes with the gas, we'll escort our guests to the restroom, okay?"

"Yes ma'am," Victor responds. Elizabeth winks at him and shuts the door again.

Riley lets out a sigh, puffing out his cheeks as he does, and turns to face his friends again. "Did I mention that that woman is completely nuts?" he asks.

"Hey, watch what you say," Victor snaps. Riley ignores him and stretches his arms over his head, then pushes off the ground to roll his chair back over to the computer station. He glances over the coding and the surveillance screens again as Ben and Abigail start pacing around the truck. Bobbi leans against the far wall by the door, then glances over at what Riley's doing. She appears to be interested in something on the screen and leans in close over his shoulder, turning just slightly to talk into his ear.

"This will probably be our only chance to get out," she whispers. "When we get to the bathroom, I'll make a diversion. You grab the others and take off in the truck. Use the computers to get in touch with Sadusky."

Riley keeps pecking away at the keyboard. Also without turning, he responds just as quietly. "Okay, Miss Observant, I didn't hear a word you just said since you're talking into my cotton ball, but I assume you're making an escape plan of some sort. That's all good and well for you, but I can't do anything. If I do, Alice in Psycholand will start offing little girls I bought ice cream for."

Bobbi turns and looks at him with a very confused look on her face. Before he can say anything more, the door behind them opens back up and Joseph steps in this time.

"Listen up. The girls will go with Elizabeth and Evan, the guys will go with me and Victor. Keep in mind the only one I was told had to keep alive was this fool, here," he points to Riley, "so anyone else, feel free to try something 'cause I could use a little tension release, and it's dark out so there's little risk of anyone seeing you to come to your rescue."

"Why does Evan get to go with the girls?" Victor asks.

"Because Elizabeth is worried you might hesitate if your little girlfriend here decides to play hero."

"I'm not his girlfriend," Bobbi grumbles.

Joseph stares at her for just a second, just long enough to imply that she should keep her mouth shut, before stepping back down the steps onto the ground. "Let's go," he orders, then waits as everyone piles out of the truck. Ben gets out first and holds out his hand to help Riley down the stares, who just stops and stares down at the offered hand.

"Awe, how chivalrous," he teases. "Still trying to play my Prince Charming? I think I can handle the stairs, big guy, but thanks."

He limps down the steps and makes a "ta-da!" motion with his hands. Ben shakes his head in disbelief. "Glad to see being kidnapped and tortured didn't ruin your sense of humor," he grins.

Victor gets out next and Joseph immediately starts to prod Ben and Riley away from the truck. Ben looks back to see Abigail stepping down and he makes eye contact with her. She looks a little worried, so he gives her a little smile to tell her everything's going to be okay, a smile that she returns with a nervous nod.

"Come on," Victor gripes, shoving Ben forward. "You're just going to the bathroom, for Christ's sake. You'll see her again in like five minutes."

They disappear around the side of the building, Abigail watching the whole time.

"Everyone ready?" Elizabeth asks as she makes her way around the truck, having just come from inside the store to pay for the gas. When neither Abigail nor Bobbi responds, she claps her hands together and smiles. "All right, then, lets go. The ladies room is on the other side of the building." With that, she turns and starts walking away, leaving Evan to coax the girls into following.

"You're the one who said you had to pee," he reminds Bobbi, who rolls her eyes and follows after Elizabeth. Evan makes an "after you" gesture with his arm to Abigail, and she turns to catch up with Bobbi. The three women enter the restroom together, Elizabeth chattering away at them like they're old friends.

"You know, finding that feather on the tree was so exhilarating," she's saying. "I mean, I was excited to begin with but actually seeing that first clue with my own eyes – I can only imagine what it must have felt like to discover the crow inside!"

Abigail looks away, unsure how to respond. Elizabeth waves her off. "Oh, never mind about that. I have it, now. Anyway, I was pointing out how thrilling all of this is. Is it always like this?"

Bobbi answers for Abigail as she pushes her way through to the only clean stall in the little restroom. "Sure," she says on her way past, "because treasure hunting always involves some psycho holding you hostage."

"Actually," Abigail bites her lip, "at this rate I don't think it'd be a treasure hunt _without_ us being held hostage – it's sort of a pattern with Ben and Riley…"

"Really?" Elizabeth muses, "I didn't know there was such a thing as hostage-prone people."

"Neither did I," Bobbi mumbles. She exits the stall, washes up, and starts to head outside.

"Where are you going?" Elizabeth asks, the mock friendliness gone from her voice.

"It's crowded in here. I'm going to wait outside…unless you think your boy, Evan, can't handle me."

Elizabeth's smile returns as she shoos Bobbi out the door. "Fine, fine."

Bobbi turns to walk out when Elizabeth stops her again. "Oh, Agent Miller. Here's a fair warning to you – don't be fooled by Evan's carefree nature. He is downright deadly when he wants to be."

"Warning taken," Bobbi says, and walks out the door.


	30. Part 29

_**Part 29**_

Bobbi walks out to see Evan playing around with a hackey sack. She takes a moment to observe, watching as he fluidly bounces the bean bag from the inside of a foot to his knee, to pop off his elbow up to land on the back of his neck before he drops it back down, doing a spin in the air in which he hops over one leg and catches the sack on his ankle as he comes around. He is about to start again when he looks up and notices Bobbi watching.

"Impressed?" he asks.

"Actually," she says, moving forward slowly with a grin on her face, "yes, I am. Were you in a circus as a kid or something?"

He smiles and, still balancing on one leg, does a back flip and catches the sack in one hand when he lands. "Maybe," he says, and walks over to Bobbi, returning her grin. "Would you like me more if I was?"

"I just might," she says, and leans in to kiss him. He hesitates for a second, then shrugs and decides to go with it. Just as her lips brush against his, she brings up one knee into his groin and makes a run for the front of the store. Evan cusses, then immediately jumps up onto the water heater beside the building and hits the roof running. As Bobbi rounds the corner, Evan jumps down off the roof to land directly in front of her, grabbing her wrists and throwing her against the wall.

"I'll scream," she hisses, struggling against him.

"No, you won't," he says calmly, "You do and Elizabeth will kill every one of you, including the guy in the gas station. Is that what you want?"

"How do I know all of you aren't bluffing?"

"Do you really want to take that risk?"

She clenches her teeth together and tries to knee Evan again. He's ready this time and brings up his own knee into the top of her thigh, pressing it against the wall. He then uses his whole body to flatten her against the brick. She struggles against him, nearly growling in frustration.

"Calm down," Evan breathes in her ear. "Geez, are all FBI gals so feisty?"

"Are all CIA guys such pigs?" she spits out.

Evan backs off just a little and flicks his eyes up and to the right in a thoughtful manner. After a second of deliberation, he puckers out his lips a little and nods his head a few times.

"Yeah, pretty much," he confirms.

"Evan!" Elizabeth suddenly calls from back at the restroom. "Where is Agent Miller?" Her voice is icy, dangerous. Evan relaxes his hold on Bobbi's wrists.

"Kiss me," he says.

"What, or else she'll kill me?"

"No, she'll just kill everyone else in front of you, starting with that other chick."

"Abigail," she reminds him.

"Whatever - look, I'm doing you a favor here, now just do it."

Just as Elizabeth starts to round the corner, Bobbi wraps her arms around the back of Evan's neck and pulls his lips into hers. She brings up one leg around the back of his and looks for all the world as if she's enjoying herself. Evan plays right along, a small smile crossing his lips. Elizabeth stops in her tracks as she comes across the two, and Abigail does the same beside her, her jaw dropping open. At almost the same moment, the boys come around the corner from their side of the building, Joseph in the lead.

"Great," he mumbles as Ben and Riley follow behind him. Both of them freeze where they are, too, when they see what's stopped Joseph, and Riley lets a little "wow" escape him. Victor is the last to come around.

"What's the hold-up?" he asks, then sees what's going on. A look of pure jealousy takes over his normally awkward demeanor and he races over to Evan, yelling "get off her!" as he grabs Evan by the shoulder. As Victor pulls him away from Bobbi, he takes a swing at Evan, who laughs and easily dodges it, taking the opportunity to slap Victor lightly on the face.

"Boys," Elizabeth warns quietly, a hand going up to her head. They ignore her and continue the dance of Victor swinging angrily and Evan slapping in jest. After a few rounds of this game, Victor backs up and, faster than a gunslinger in an old western, quick-draws his pistol and levels it at Evan's head.

"Victor," Elizabeth warns again, but he's too angry to listen.

Evan freezes, all the muscles in his body suddenly tensing. The humor drains out of his face and is replaced with a cold, viper-like stare. Victor is breathing heavily but Evan appears to have stopped breathing all together. Victor's finger twitches on the trigger and Evan springs into action, letting loose all the tension in his coiled muscles. He leaps around behind Victor, grabbing and twisting up his gun arm at the same time. He ends up behind Victor, one arm holding onto Victor's head and the other pinning the young agent's hand holding the pistol right up underneath his chin.

"Easy Evan," Joseph says cautiously, moving slowly towards the two men. Elizabeth starts to move over to them from her end, as well, but when Abigail starts to move, Ben catches her eyes and shakes his head "no." She stops and instead waits for Bobbi to inch her way across the wall back towards her.

"Evan, let him go," Elizabeth orders, but calmly.

Evan continues to hold the pistol under Victor's chin, but his hold begins to relax just a little. He glances around quickly to see that Joseph and Elizabeth are almost to him. He looks back down at Victor, tugging his head back just a little farther so he can see into his eyes.

"You _ever_ point your gun at me again, Vikki," he says very quietly, but with venom in every word, "I _will _kill you." With that, he pushes the safety back on on the gun and shoves it back in Victor's holster, pushing him back towards Joseph. Without saying another word, he stalks off towards the truck and climbs into the driver's seat.

"Is your brain damaged?" Joseph asks Victor, who still looks angry but relieved at the same time.

Elizabeth looks angrily at her boys, then turns and walks back to Bobbi. She suddenly slaps her across the face, hard. "Slut!" she manages to yell quietly, "You are lucky my boys are so infatuated with you or else I'd kill you right now, you useless whore. I won't just yet because I don't want to hurt them further than you already have, but you had better find something to prove your worth to me soon. I don't need to lug around excess baggage on this trip unless it's serving a purpose." She turns back to Joseph and Victor. "Let's go. Joseph, it looks like Evan wants to drive for a while, and I don't think it'd be wise to argue with him about it. You'll have to stay in the back with Victor."

Joseph frowns but nods as he moves back to prod Ben and Riley towards the truck. Abigail and Bobbi meet up with them, Abigail giving Ben a big hug. Riley is oddly quiet.

"Riley? You okay?" Ben asks as they wait to get into the truck.

"Yeah, I've just, I've never seen him like that before," Riley says, still looking shocked.

"Ben tried to tell you not to trust him," Bobbi leans in, and Riley turns his shocked look onto her.

"Like you should talk," he points out.

Bobbi quickly turns her face away and steps up into the truck as Joseph gets the door open. They all climb in, settling into various places in the truck – Riley back at the computers, Ben and Abigail taking the small couch, Victor and Joseph taking the bigger one, and Bobbi just picking a solitary corner on the floor. Elizabeth comes in and walks over to Riley.

"Any more emails from Sadusky yet?" she asks.

"Uh, yeah, another one saying he doesn't know who the prisoners are that they're supposed to be releasing, give him a clue, why am I doing this, please stop messing with the airlines, yadda yadda and same old stuff," Riley responds in a bored manner.

"Good, keep him on his toes. Shut down another airport."

"But, that'd be three. I don't know if I can keep up on all that traffic."

"Find a way," she states, and walks off the truck, slamming the door behind her. A few seconds later, the engine rumbles and the truck begins to move again. Riley sighs, running his hands through his hair as he stares at the computer screens.

"Anything we can do to help?" Ben asks.

"Sorry, Ben, but this doesn't exactly fall under your area of expertise."

There are a few seconds of silence before Bobbi suddenly speaks up from her corner. "I might be able to help," she offers.

"What," Victor grumbles, "Evan's gone so you're just gonna move on to the next guy? Are you doing this to get back at me?"

"Victor, you've been working with me for a long time. You know if anyone here can help him, I can."

Joseph looks at Victor. "Is that true?" he asks.

"Yeah," Victor says after a long pause, "She can do it."

"Well, all right," Riley says, the perkiness returning to his voice in an attempt to cut the tension a little. "Show me what you can do."

Bobbi walks over to the computers and the two begin discussing Riley's process. She seems to pick up on it fairly quickly and offers some suggestions of her own. Ben and Abigail sit back, looking confused.

"It's like they're talking in a whole different language," Abigail remarks.

"Yeah, makes you feel kind of useless, right? I'm not used to that," Ben says, furling his eyebrows.

"I would enjoy that while you can," Joseph says, a tight smile tugging at the corner of his lip.

Uneasy, Abigail scoots closer to Ben and he puts his arm around her shoulders. Everything inside the truck falls silent with the exception of Riley and Bobbi clattering away at the keyboards as they make their way closer to their destination.


	31. Part 30

_**Part 30**_

The sun is high in the sky as the truck rolls down the highway. Inside, Ben and Abigail are curled up together on the couch in a light slumber. Victor is cleaning out his guns and Joseph is in such a sound sleep that he's snoring heavily. Riley and Bobbi are still working on the computers, Bobbi having turned over the waste basket to sit on.

"I can't believe he's actually sleeping," Riley whispers to her as he looks at Joseph, once again.

"He's not a robot," she responds, only half paying attention as she watches the screen.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Riley muses, then looks over at her. "You know you're probably gonna get fired for this, right?"

"It crossed my mind."

"So why'd you volunteer to help me?"

"Because I knew you couldn't do it on your own and I needed to make up for, well, the stupid thing I did at the gas station that could have gotten us all killed."

"…I don't think making out with Evan was really gonna get us killed. I don't blame you, by the way. He's sort of got that natural charisma thing going for him that the rest of us guys want to hate him for 'cause he steals all the women, but he turns it on us, too, so we're all powerless under his likeability factor of like times thirty thousand."

"No – ew – I didn't kiss him because I like him. What kind of girl do you think I am?"

Riley shrugs, "I don't really know you all that well…"

"Well I'm not that kind of girl, okay?" she drops her voice down even more so Victor can't hear, and makes sure she's talking into Riley's good ear this time, "I had to kiss him to cover for the fact that I was trying to get away and get us some help."

"What?" Now Riley looks a little irritated, "What were you thinking? Did I not tell you how completely nuts these people are? Do you know why I'm helping them? If it was just me I had to worry about, I'd have bailed a long time ago. Elizabeth has secret agents working for her like everywhere. She told me she'd go after not only Ben and Abigail, but Ben's parents, and any friends I've ever had, and I wasn't kidding about the little girl I bought ice cream for – she's been watching me for months now. She knows everyone I've ever come in contact with and I don't think she's lying when she says she'll target them all."

Bobbi is quiet for a few seconds. "…You know, with the type of person she is, I doubt she'll just let us walk away when we find this lost city. We're all going to die if we don't do something."

"I know – I've been working on that, but there's nothing we can really do right now. Even if we manage to get away from her, there's still all the people who work for her in the government. I've had to meet a few of them so far besides who's here with us right now, and I'm keeping track of them."

"How?"

"Doesn't matter, but I figured if we can find a way to take down Elizabeth, we have to take them all down with her. That's why I'm so glad Ben and Abigail are here to help – Ben's better at the whole defeating-the-bad-guys thing than I am."

"Right, I've heard you guys have done this a couple times…"

"Yeah, we're like villain magnets. Maybe you guys should just put us on a street corner somewhere and catch the creeps as they're pulled in by the sheer force of the giant invisible target painted on our backs."

Bobbi laughs, "Maybe we should. It could make our jobs a whole lot easier."

"We could hold up a big sign: Found next big treasure. Eager to lead people while held at gunpoint."

Bobbi laughs again and Victor slams the slider forward on his gun rather loudly, glaring at them. "You guys must be done if you're just goofing around," he mutters.

"Actually," Riley responds, "everything _is_ pretty much under control now. I have one more little bit of programming to slide in here, and the system can go back to running itself."

He turns back to the keyboard and types in a few more things, Bobbi watching his screen. "Genius," she says as he finishes up.

"People keep telling me that lately."

"Just don't get a swelled head over it."

"Please. I have the self confidence of a twelve year old girl who's lucky enough to get braces _and_ glasses the day before the next school dance." He stands up to stretch his legs and almost tumbles backwards when the truck suddenly comes to a stop. Bobbi has to catch his chair as it rolls back towards her and Victor slams his hands on the various gun parts splayed out on the little fridge he's been using as an end table to keep them from sliding off. Joseph sits up, mumbling something mostly incoherent about Evan's driving skills, and Ben and Abigail also sit up, rubbing their eyes. Abigail looks over at Riley and Bobbi.

"Have you guys been up all night?" she asks.

"Did we have a curfew?" Riley asks back.

The truck door opens and sunlight pours through. Evan jumps up into the truck, a huge grin on his face.

"You guys gotta see this," he beams, and waves them towards the door. Curious, Riley gets up and follows him out, everyone else right behind. He steps out into the Utah sun and is greeted with the view of a rolling red dessert covered in plateaus, odd rock formations, and spattered with dessert shrubs and a few trees.

"Isn't this great?" Evan asks, putting an arm around Riley's shoulder.

"It's…hot," Riley says, not sounding very enthusiastic.

"Yeah it is!" Evan says, clapping Riley on the shoulder. Riley stumbles forward just a tiny bit and looks around, frowning. Ben walks over and stands next to him, smiling.

"I've always wanted to come here," he says.

"Great, we can all go skipping through the arches together and just forget all about the fact that we're hostages," Riley says with mock enthusiasm.

Elizabeth now walks over to join them. "Come now, Riley, this can be fun if you behave yourselves." She looks around at the group huddled by the truck and frowns. "Where's Victor?"

"Hiding in the truck," Bobbi smirks.

"I'm not hiding," Victor hollers from inside, "just putting my weapons back together."

"Please," Bobbi whispers to Abigail, "he had those back together before Riley even stepped off the truck."

Abigail smiles uncomfortably and moves away from Bobbi to stand beside Ben. Evan sighs and jumps up into the truck. "Sorry, Vikki, didn't mean to mack on your woman."

"And…?" Elizabeth prods.

Evan sighs and continues with an eye roll, "And for almost blowing your brains out. There, now can we go please?"

He steps out of the way as Victor slowly eases past him off the truck. Elizabeth gives Victor an expectant stare and he half turns back to Evan. "Sorry I pointed my gun at you" he mumbles, not sounding at all sincere, but Evan doesn't seem to care.

"Okay, then," Evan says, turning back to Riley, "show us the way, navigator."

Riley hesitates.

"Is there a problem?" Elizabeth asks.

"…uh, there's a tiny problem, yeah."

"Well, what is it?"

"Uh, well you know how we had to spend a bunch of time looking for that tree with the feather back in Roanoke?"

Everyone around him nods.

"Yeah, that was with me knowing exactly what I was looking for. The clues for the rest of these stops? They might be just a little more vague than that first one."

"So what you're saying," Joseph sums up, "is that you don't have a clue what we're looking for?"

"No, no, I have a clue…just not a very precise one."

"But you have the story," Abigail jumps in when she notices the anger creeping into Elizabeth's face. "Why don't you tell us the next part and we can see if we can put it together."

Riley looks questioningly over at Elizabeth. She throws her hands up and shakes her head. "You had better make this quick. We don't have time to be wasting on puzzles."

Ben looks at her in a calm demeanor. "All treasure hunting really is is solving puzzles," he explains. "Any real treasure hunter knows that, but then you never were a real treasure hunter, were you Drake?"

Her jaw sets in a tight frown. "Riley's been spreading secrets, now hasn't he? No matter, but I will tell you that I _did_ find those original artifacts. When I moved them I was just trying to make them a little more valuable."

"You're a fraud, Drake," Ben pushes. "You were then and you are now. You're a disgrace to every facet of preserving history and to everyone-"

"Shut up!" she yells, and rushes towards Ben as she pulls one of her hair picks out, revealing a small blade hidden within it. Just as she is about to reach Ben with it, Riley steps in front of him. The blade stops a mere inch from jamming into his neck.

"Move Riley," she demands, holding the blade in place. Riley stands still, locking his blue eyes onto her green ones. She pushes the blade just a little closer to his neck, but he doesn't move.

"I need him, Elizabeth," he explains, struggling to keep the edge out of his voice. She continues to glare at him. "I can't solve the puzzle without him," he tries again. She brings the blade down and Riley starts to relax, just to be surprised when she brings it back up and slices a long but shallow cut into his forearm. He winces, but doesn't give her the satisfaction of crying out. She frowns and shoves the blade back into her hair.

"Hurry up and tell your story, then" she says, waving one hand at Riley. She steps into the back of the truck, shutting the door behind her.

Riley speaks without turning around. "Ben," he sighs, "what did Daddy tell you about poking at the crazy people?"

"Sorry, Riley, I don't know what I was thinking. I just can't stand that someone like her is going to get credit for your discovery."

Riley continues talking, almost as if he didn't hear Ben's apology. "Maybe this type of crazy is contagious…it seems to be infecting everyone…"

Abigail moves in to inspect Riley's arm, but he pulls away from her. "It's just a scratch, Abigail, it'll be fine."

She crosses her arms over her chest and glares at him. He holds his arm out for her without any further argument.

"We need to clean this and wrap it so it doesn't get infected," she says, more thinking out loud than actually talking to anyone.

Joseph grunts. "I'll get the first aid kit," and he walks up to the cab of the truck.

"Joseph, helping me out?" Riley says, very confused. "The crazy is definitely contagious."

"Hey, can we get on with the story, please?" Victor asks, and Evan nods his agreement.

"Yeah, sure, I can talk while Mommy patches me up," Riley smiles.

"Riley," Ben interjects. "...Thanks…I know I don't tell you that enough – thank you."

Riley finally turns to look at him. "Stop, you're making me blush. Seriously, though, try to play nice with these people. I'm not very comfortable with the fact that I'm actually getting _used_ to pain."

Joseph returns before Ben can respond and shoves the first aid kit into Abigail's hands. "There, fix him so he can tell his story and we can get out of this oven."

"Oh never mind," Riley grins, "he had a self-serving ulterior motive to the helpfulness. I guess he's just the normal, scary, swat guy crazy, after all."

"Tell your story," Joseph orders with a sneer.

"Okay, okay. I'll just start where I left off, I guess…"


	32. Part 31

_**Part 31**_

**A/N: **So I'm back! Sorry a million times over that this took so long. I've been fighting Bronchitis on and off, strep throat, sinus and ear infections, fevers, a normally very mild heart condition that's been going wonky since I've been sick, and I think it's because of all that that I've been just plain lazy with writing! But now I'm _almost_ completely back to healthy and somehow found my motivation along the way to get back to this. And just as a recap, here, Riley's now telling the second part to the Croatan Legend just after they've arrived at Arches National Park in Utah.

And thanks to everybody who've kept on reading in my absence, kept reviewing, and kept emailing me to help me find my motivation! I salute you all!

* * *

And so the warrior traveled

Until he reached the great ocean.

The feather danced in circles before him

And so he waited.

And the horses came.

Cro closed his eyes and listened

To the drumming of their hooves

Beating out a sacred rhythm

That granted him strength.

He opened his eyes and watched the feather

Dance out over the waves

And he followed it,

The horses nodding their approval.

His feet did not sink into the sea

And he walked until he could no longer see the shore

Where he was confronted by a sparkling white stallion

Rising up from the water's depths.

"Warrior," said the stallion,

"The God Crow has asked for my service in return for yours."

"Then my service you will have,"

Cro responded

And the stallion stamped his foot in appreciation.

"Then we shall ride," he said

And Cro climbed upon his back

And the feather settled in the stallion's mane

And the great white horse took them back across the lands

Faster than the eagle flies and the doe flees.

They ran through many moons and many suns

But the horse did not slow and did not tire

And neither did the warrior.

They crossed through forests

And over rivers

And entered into a red desert

Where they crossed over giant bridges of stone.

The stallion finally stopped when they reached

A great stone arch perched above the red valley below.

"Wake up, dear mare," the stallion called

And the arch shook and quivered

Until one end lifted from the ground

And became a horse's great head.

The stone mare pressed her ears back

As she examined the warrior before her.

"He will help us," said the stallion.

"He will find our son?" the mare asked.

"If that is what you wish," the warrior said.

"Then you must enter the maze of fire

And bring my son back to me,"

Said the mare as she turned her great head

Pointing out the way.

The warrior nodded and jumped off the stallion

Then plucked the black feather from his mane.

"Please, Great Crow, guide my path," he prayed

And walked in the direction the mare had sent him.

He soon came across great walls of flame

Streaked with white lines of mist

And he held the feather out before him.

"Show me the way," he prayed again

And released the feather into the flames.

He followed it along a winding path

Between the fiery walls

And so he could find his way out

He marked the ground with a horse's tracks.

As the sun dropped down

And the moon rose high

The feather floated down a path where the walls came together.

"I don't understand," said Cro,

"Why have we stopped?

There is no colt down here."

"Because a crow cannot fly beneath the ground,"

A voice answered.

Cro stepped back as a white rabbit

Hopped out of the flames.

"Rabbit," said Cro

"Have you seen the lost colt?

Can you take me to him?"

"I have and I can," answered the rabbit,

"But only if you do me a service in return."

"I can and I will," answered Cro.

"Then follow me," said the rabbit.

With that the rabbit dug a hole through the flames

At the point where they touched together

And met with the ground.

Cro tucked the feather in his hair

And followed the rabbit into the hole.

They crawled through darkness for eternity

And Cro was happy when the light from the moon

Finally appeared before him.

He followed the rabbit out of the hole.

He stood peering at the flame wall

That now formed a circle all around him.

In the middle of the circle stood a great stone pillar

And on top of the pillar

Cro could hear the cry of the young horse.

"Hurry," said the rabbit,

"Before Vulture returns for the colt."

Cro nodded and wrapped his strong arms

Around the great pillar.

Slowly,

He climbed to the top

Where he found the colt crying

Within a giant bird's nest.

"Don't cry," he said,

"I will save you."

And he hoisted the colt upon his shoulders

And began his descent back down the pillar.

When he climbed half the distance

A great scream rang out in the sky above.

"It's Vulture! You must hurry!"

The rabbit cried

And the warrior climbed faster

And Vulture flew closer.

With one mighty scream

Vulture dove at Cro

So he leapt from the pillar,

And upon hitting the ground

Used his own body to protect the colt.

Vulture came down upon the warrior

And bit at his arms

And scratched at this back

But Cro did run and did not cry out.

"Please," he whispered

"Help me, Great Crow."

And the sky turned black

As hundreds of crows flew into the circle of fire

And descended upon Vulture.

They lifted Vulture into the air

And tore him apart until nothing was left

And the warrior smiled and thanked the God Crow

Before letting the whispers of his dreams

Take him into darkness.

When he awoke

He was laying on a bed of straw

And staring up at the night sky.

"Welcome back, brave warrior,"

A soft voice murmured

And the warrior looked up to see the mare

Hovering protectively above him,

Her little colt snuggled at her side.

"How is the little one?" asked Cro

"He is healthy, thanks to you.

It was he that drug you back here

With the aide of a white rabbit."

"Yes, the rabbit," Cro remembered,

"I made a promise to help him.

I should fulfill that promise now."

"But your wounds are not yet healed.

Stay through the night

And with the rise of the sun,

My mate will take you where you are needed."

"Thank you," said Cro

And fell back into slumber.

He was awoken at first light by the rabbit

Whispering in his ear,

"It's time we leave."

"Very well," answered Cro

And stood up slowly and carefully and painfully.

The white stallion was waiting for him

And the mare nodded her thanks to him

And the colt nodded thanks and goodbye

And mother and colt touched noses and became the stone arch.

The warrior picked up the rabbit

And mounted the stallion.

The rabbit whispered the way into the stallion's ear

And they rode like lightening into the morning sun.


	33. Part 32

_**Part 32**_

**A/N:** And Ta-DA! Another chapter for you guys! Does that make up for my absence now? Sort of? :)

* * *

"…and what exactly did _that_ tell us?" Joseph gripes, "It's just a stupid story."

"And you wonder why I question your intelligence," Riley says, shaking his head.

Joseph glares at him and growls, and Riley takes a limping step back.

"Okay, you have _got_ to stop doing that," he says, holding his hands up, palms out for emphasis. "People are gonna throw you in the circus, or one of those freak shows, or something."

"Riley," Ben sighs, holding a hand to his head.

"Yeah, I know, Ben, I'm sorry. I should know better than to poke at the crazy people."

"Riley!" Abigail scolds and he shuts up, though not without revealing a tiny smirk. She rolls her eyes at him.

"Aren't boys just impossible to deal with?" Elizabeth suddenly says from the steps of the truck. Everyone except Evan jumps just a little, startled as they hadn't known when she had opened the door. Standing up, she claps her hands together. "So, the details from the story do seem to match up with our current scenery. Now let's get to work finding out what else it tells us. Thoughts, anyone?"

Riley leans over and whispers into Bobbi's ear, "Am I the only one that gets nervous when she's acting nice?"

"I'm getting there," she whispers back.

Elizabeth looks at everyone, then frowns. "_Thoughts_, anyone?" she asks again, the chipperness gone from her voice. Ben springs into action, walking back and forth and thinking out loud.

"The red dessert, the stone bridges, the arch, the fact that it took several days to get here – those were all clues that led us here," he stops and waves a finger at Riley, "And you were right, we didn't need the part about going into the ocean."

"Told ya so," Riley beams.

"Which means," Ben continues, "that there are some parts to the story that are just that – story – and some parts that are actual clues. So what we need to do is find out which parts are just story and which parts are important."

"How do we do that?" Victor asks.

"Well, let's go back through it, and does anyone actually know anything about the landmarks in this park?"

When no one says anything, Riley looks around then raises his hand. "Uh, did we all forget that we have the informational world network on wheels right behind us, here? Or is the heat just frying everyone's brain?"

There is another awkward silence before Evan pipes up, "Guess we're all gettin' back in the truck, then?" With a shrug, Riley jumps back into it, first, and while he pulls up search screens on all the monitors, everyone else gathers around. Within seconds, each screen is displaying various images and information regarding the park.

"Do your thing, guys," Riley says, looking back over his shoulder at Ben and Abigail.

"From what I gather, we follow the clues mostly chronologically," Abigail offers, "so what's the first thing Cro did when he got here?"

"He talked to the mare," Bobbi fires out.

"Which was actually one of the arches," Ben reminds her, "So which one looks like a horse head?"

"Two," Riley says, as he brings up images of all the arches around the park, "The mare _and_ the colt formed the arch at the end…unless we have to start all over again and go fight a giant vulture to save a baby horse," he grins.

"That would probably be the part that's just story," Ben grins back, then focuses on the images on the screen, "The arch also has to be overlooking a valley…" He points at one of the images on the screen to Riley's right, "There," he says, and Riley pulls the image up on the bigger screen in the middle.

"Delicate Arch," Riley reads the caption underneath the photo, then looks closer at the image. "It does sort of look like a horse head bending down, but the part that's supposed to be the baby looks sort of more like a fat cow head to me."

"Well, it's the closest we've got," Ben says, "What was next?"

Abigail responds this time, "She sent the warrior to a maze of flames."

"It couldn't have been actual fire," Ben thinks out loud.

"Duh," Evan chuckles, "unless rabbits can dig holes through flames."

Ben ignores him and continues his thought process, "So we're looking for some landmark that looks like it could be fire."

"Oh, with the white mist lines," Bobbi reminds them.

It only takes Riley about a half second to find this one, and he laughs when he does. He brings images up on all the screens. "Guess people _still_ think it looks like fire," he says, "It's called the Fiery Furnace…and from the way it's described, it pretty much is a maze of rock walls."

"This whole place is made of stone pillars," Victor frowns as he looks at the various images, "How are going to find the right one?"

"First of all," Riley corrects, "people are calling most of the formations 'fins' nowadays instead of pillars. Secondly, while there do seem to be several actual pillars of stone in the maze, how many can possibly be in the center of a perfect circle that we have to crawl through a tunnel to get to?"

"And how do we find this tunnel, smart guy?" Victor asks, and Riley looks at Ben.

"If the 'horse tracks' are actually real, you think they'd still be there?" he asks Ben.

"There's only one way to find out," he replies.

"Finally!" Evan cries out. "Let's go!"

"Just a minute, Evan," Elizabeth smiles, and Evan's shoulders slump. "We should get some things together, first. We're going to need some water out there and we should bring some other supplies just in case."

Evan nods and begins the process of packing for the trip, Joseph stepping over to help him. Elizabeth looks back at her hostages.

"Nice work," she compliments to Abigail and Ben, then frowns at Bobbi, "but you haven't done much of anything yet to prove your worth to me."

"Uh, yeah, she did," Riley comes to Bobbi's rescue. "She only stayed up all last night helping me with the impossible task of shutting down yet another airport for you."

"Really?" Elizabeth questions, her eyebrows shooting up. "We have another computer genius?"

"No," Bobbi quickly retorts, waving her hand, "not a genius, not like Riley. I just know my way around computers on the above-average level."

"A little more than that," Riley scoffs, and Bobbi smiles just a tiny bit. He turns back to Elizabeth. "Anyway, the point is, even I can't do a whole lot more by myself. If you wanna keep up this whole 'terrorist' charade, I'm gonna need her help."

"You aren't lying to save her, are you Riley?" Elizabeth asks.

This time Victor speaks up, "No, he's not. Anyone back here last night can vouch for her."

After a short pause, Elizabeth shakes her hands at all of them. "Fine, fine, you can continue breathing. Just don't do anything that'll make me change my mind."

Bobbi nods and Victor smiles at her. She catches the smile but only shoots him a frown, in return. He sighs and steps back out of the truck, looking defeated.

Evan and Joseph finish with the packs and Evan happily shrugs one on as he hops out of the truck. Joseph looks at his, then tosses it into Riley's lap.

"Put that on and let's go," he orders and Riley starts to protest. Ben cuts him off.

"I'll take it," he offers, and picks the pack off Riley's lap. This time Joseph begins to protest but Elizabeth cuts him off.

"Let Mr. Gates carry it," she sighs. "Riley doesn't need the added strain on his knee this early in the search."

Abigail hesitates, then quietly speaks, "This could be a pretty strenuous hike. Maybe Riley should stay in the truck if you don't want him to-"

"Out of the question," Elizabeth snaps, "unless any of you have memorized this story word for word?"

"Well, he could write it down," Abigail offers, but Riley shakes his head and stands.

"Give it up, Abigail," he says, "that's not how she works."

He gives her a sympathetic smile and steps down off the truck, Elizabeth following after him with her own evil grin plastered across her face. Abigail turns back to Ben, a pleading look in her eyes. He only shrugs back at her.

"We have to trust Riley on this one," he tells her. "He already knows by now when it's safe to push and when to give in. Until we figure that out for ourselves, we're just gonna have to follow his lead."

Abigail nods sadly, then both make their way off the truck into the hot Utah sun.


	34. Part 33

_**Part 33**_

"It's hot," Riley whines as he stares up at the arch hovering over his head, "These are the ugliest horse heads I've ever seen. Can you even _see_ the Fiery Furnace from here?"

"We're staring down at a valley," Victor laughs. "You can see everything from up here."

Evan comes hiking back to them from wherever he had taken off to while the rest of the party had stopped to rest. "You can see it a lot better from that end of the plateau over there," he says, pointing off to the right of where they stand. "And Vikki, good to hear you laughing again, dude!"

"Yeah, what's with the good mood all of a sudden?" Riley asks.

Victor just smiles and turns away, his eyes glancing over at Bobbi for just a split second. She is standing beside the arch staring out over the valley floor below, pieces of her hair that have fallen out of her ponytail sticking lightly to her face. She had removed her dress shirt along the hike and tied it around her waist, the white tank top underneath revealing her toned figure.

Having caught the flicker of eye movement, Riley turns to look over at Bobbi, then looks back to Victor. "…I could be wrong, but I think you already sort of blew your chance," he tells Victor quietly.

"I never really had a chance with her to begin with," Victor answers, "but, as I already told Ben, it doesn't mean I can't enjoy the view."

Bobbi turns around and sees them both looking at her. She rolls her eyes and walks over to sit down next to Abigail and Ben, who hands her a water from the pack.

Elizabeth, who has been sitting with Joseph up on a large rock further away from the group, stands and walks down to them. "Are we ready to continue?" she asks. "Evan, do you need a break, first?"

"Nah, I'm fine. Good to go," he beams.

"…So, what now? Do we drive over to the Furnace trailhead and start from there?" Victor asks.

"No," Ben shoots him down, "Cro walked straight from here to the maze, meaning he probably entered the Furnace at the first place he came to. I think we should stick to the story there."

"Yeah, but from what Evan says," Victor argues back, "we can see it from here. Can't we just scope out the entrance from here and find it again once we get there?"

Riley is nodding his head in agreement.

"Not a good plan," Evan says, then explains. "There are a _lot_ of ways you can get into that maze and all those fins look pretty much the same. Plus, they're gonna look totally different up close than from back here. It'd be pretty much impossible to know whether the entrances we see from up here are the same ones we're looking at down there."

"I guess we continue walking, then," Elizabeth says, and Riley's shoulders slump as he makes a little frowny face.

"How far is it?" he whines again.

"Oh, I'd say about three miles," Evan smiles.

Riley drops his head down to his chest as Evan turns to lead the way back towards the maze.

"Don't they rent out camels or something?" Riley asks as Elizabeth passes him.

"What desert do you think we're in?" Bobbi asks as she follows behind Elizabeth.

"Or maybe donkeys?" Riley continues as Victor passes with no reply. "How about an ATV?"

"Just walk," Joseph orders.

Ben and Abigail move to either side of Riley. "Come on, Riley," Ben says, placing an arm on Riley's shoulder to turn him in the right direction. They walk off after the others, Joseph falling in line right behind them.

They had walked about two miles when Riley calls back over his shoulder. "Hey…Joseph," he says awkwardly.

Joseph stops walking. "Whatever it is, no," he says curtly before he starts moving again.

Riley turns around to face him, walking backwards. "You won't even let me ask?"

Ben and Abigail, who are ahead a few paces, slow down a bit and glance over their shoulders curiously as they walk.

"You don't call me by my name, ever, so I assume whatever you want must be something idiotic," Joseph continues.

Riley, still moving backwards, flashes his innocent smile. "I'm gonna ask anyway. You ever give anyone a piggyback ride?"

Joseph stops again, as does Riley, followed by Ben and Abigail who have looks on their faces that are a mix between shock and amusement.

"What?" is all Joseph can get out.

"You know," Riley steps forward, still smiling, "a piggyback ride – you carry someone on your back…" he mimics the piggyback stance as he talks.

"I know what it is," Joseph says, becoming irritated. "No."

"I haven't asked yet."

"No!"

"Fine, have it your way," Riley throws his hands up in the air before he just plops himself down onto the ground.

"Stand up," Joseph says, no real malice in his voice for once - his tone more like that of a parent instructing their child how to do something that should have been common sense.

"Wow, no threats? Mental note: the creature becomes docile in the full heat of day."

Ben trots back over to where Riley is sitting as he sees the anger creeping onto Joseph's face. "Okay, Riley," he says reaching down to help his friend stand, "no more animal planet for you. Come on."

Riley pushes Ben's hands away. "No, Ben," he says sternly.

"Enough of this," Joseph mumbles, moving towards Riley.

"Wait, wait," Ben pleads, holding one hand up at Joseph and dropping his pack down off his other arm. "He hasn't been drinking a lot of water. He's not thinking clearly. Here, Riley, drink some water."

"I don't need any water, Ben."

Abigail cautiously moves over and squats down next to Riley, as well. "Riley, what's wrong with you?" she whispers. "Please, just have some water and let's go."

"What's going on here?" Elizabeth's voice suddenly calls from behind them. Ben and Abigail answer her at the same time with excuses of heat exhaustion and dehydration. "I wasn't asking you," Elizabeth snaps.

Without saying anything, Riley reaches down and pulls up his pant leg to expose his bad knee, which has become swollen and turned nearly the same shade of red as the sand he is sitting on. Abigail gasps.

"How long has it been like that?" she asks. "I hardly even saw you limping!"

Riley just shrugs and, still looking at Joseph, speaks to Elizabeth again. "We either take another break – a long one - or Vin Diesel, here, gives me a piggyback ride. I don't think anyone else here has the muscle to carry me the last mile."

"Um…more like a mile and a half I think," Evan corrects as he, Victor, and Bobbi circle around the others.

"Move," Elizabeth says as she waves Ben and Abigail away from Riley. She begins inspecting his knee just as she had when he first injured it, and though Riley is doing his best to keep his face straight, she sees the little winces of pain as she proceeds through her inspection. "You should have said something sooner," she sighs. "We're only on our second stop and this doesn't look very good. Joseph, you'll have to carry him."

"What? You can't expect me to-"

"You did this to him in the first place," Elizabeth says coldly as she stands to face Joseph. "Take responsibility for your actions. Besides, look at him – he can't possibly be that heavy."

"Hey, what does that mean?" Riley starts, but Ben nudges him with his foot to shut him up.

"Riley," Elizabeth says, turning back to him, "the least you can do is stand so Joseph doesn't have to bend down to pick you up."

Riley nods and Ben and Abigail help him to his feet. Joseph stands still until Elizabeth plants her hands on her hips, staring him down. Eventually, he shifts his jaw and stomps over to Riley, turning his back to him.

"Can you…bend down just a little?" Riley asks, unable to keep the smile off his face.

Joseph lets out a sigh and bends down enough for Riley to hop on. "Bet you wish you had taken that backpack," Riley can't keep himself from saying.

"You say anything else, at all, for the rest of this walk," Joseph warns, his voice now nothing _but_ malice, "I will beat you just within an inch of unconsciousness before I bury you alive in this desert."

Riley swallows and nods his head.

"Good," Joseph says, then looks at everyone else. "Well?"

Quietly, they head out on their journey, once again.


	35. Part 34

_**Part 34**_

**A/N:** Just 'cause I haven't done one in a while: I don't own any of the National Treasure characters or anything referring to the previously made movies. I just spent the last of my monies fixing my brakes so if you sue me, the only things I have as collateral are my car and my dog - and please don't take my dog! I love him!

And thanks for the reviews - compliments and suggestions alike! And for the threats! Those are just as fun for me to read!

* * *

"Oof!" Riley huffs as Joseph drops him to the ground, pretty much just throwing him back off his shoulders.

"Sorry," Joseph grins. "You slipped."

Riley frowns, then looks up at the wall before him. "Oh, hey," he exclaims as he sees the red-tinted stone, charcoal black lines running vertically up the surface to touch the grayish white wavy lines that cross the stone above. "It really does look like fire," he grins.

"All right," Bens begins, "Cro had to have entered somewhere in this general area. I'd say…any of these four gaps in the walls," he says, pointing across at the four nearest entrances into the maze. "We should split up and check for any sign of a horseshoe down these paths."

"I'll just hang here, I think," Riley says, positioning himself so he's leaning his back up against the wall. "Just holler when you find the right way."

"Well that just isn't going to work," Elizabeth shakes her head.

"Why not?" Riley asks, confused.

"Because, Riley, there are eight of us, which means we need to split into teams of two to search each path – one of us with one of you. If you stay here, one of us has to stay here, and that leaves one path unsearched."

"Oh, yeah, 'cause I'm just gonna get up and sprint away as soon as you leave. In fact, I really only faked the knee pain because I really, you know, I just _had_ to experience the thrill of riding piggyback on a big scary guy that could break me in half any second he wanted to."

"Which I allowed so you'd be more useful once we got here. This is not an option. Stand up."

Riley sighs and pushes himself up against the wall, keeping the weight off his leg. He crosses his arms over his chest, looking annoyed.

Satisfied, Elizabeth begins spouting out orders. "Joseph, I want you to go with Agent Miller – I don't trust her with Victor or Evan."

All three of them look away from each other sheepishly at the mention of their names.

"Victor, you go with Ben," Elizabeth continues, "Evan, don't make me regret this but I want you paired with Riley, and I'll go with Abigail." Ben and Abigail exchange a worried look, which Elizabeth catches. "Oh, don't worry. I'm choosing Abigail because she's the only one that _hasn't_ managed to put me in a foul mood. Now let's go."

"We'll, uh, we'll take this entrance," Evan says, pointing to the one that Riley is standing closest to. He moves over beside Riley, offering him a shoulder to lean on.

"It's okay," Riley says, pushing away from the wall and slowly testing his weight on his leg. "Yeah, I can walk on this…sort of."

He limps into the gap between the walls and Evan shrugs, following him in, leaving the rest of the group to split up as they see fit. As they round a small bend in the path, Evan reaches out and touches Riley lightly on the back.

"Okay, sit down," he says. Riley looks back at him, confused. "They can't see us anymore, so sit down."

Still looking unsure, Riley complies and allows himself to get comfortable on the ground. Evan sits down in front of him and pulls the pack off his back, rummaging through it. He pulls out a first aid kit, retrieving the supplies he needs from it.

"Let me see your knee," he instructs, and Riley quickly pulls up his pant leg.

"Not to sound ungrateful, but shouldn't you be looking for that horseshoe?" Riley finally speaks as Evan begins taping up his knee.

"Shouldn't you have kept your knee wrapped to begin with?" Evan asks back.

"It was itchy," Riley shrugs and Evan grins.

"I'd scold you and say itchy is better than painful, but I broke my arm once and man, that cast made my skin itch worse than when I had chicken pox. I feel your pain, dude, but you gotta keep this taped up or you'll ruin your knee permanently."

"I know," Riley sulks.

Evan finishes the tape job and activates the cold pack, pressing it down on Riley's knee. "Hold that there," he says, then stands up. "Just sit tight – I'll look for the horseshoe." He gives Riley a little wink and turns to begin his inspection of the ground around him.

"That's not gonna work," Riley tells Evan after a few minutes of watching him circle around, staring closely at the ground which is comprised of places that are part solid rock, part sand, and part undergrowth.

"What's not?"

"You can't just _look._ See?" Riley reaches one hand down to the ground and sweeps it through the sand. He pushes aside a think layer of it before reaching the hard ground beneath.

"Oh man," Evan sighs, running a hand over his short hair, "It could be buried? This is gonna take forever."

"…or not," Riley says, as he looks down at the space he just cleared. He shifts himself over slightly and begins expanding the area of cleared-away sand. Sure enough, he reveals a deep, foot-wide horseshoe shape etched into the earth.

Evan laughs, "Oh, no way that just happened!"

Riley stares down at the carving, blinking in surprise. "This can't be real," he mumbles quietly. "It's gotta be a coincidence."

"There's only one way to find out," Evan smiles. "Stay here – I'm gonna run up 'til I find a fork in the path and try to see if I can find another one of those."

"Sure, yeah," Riley says absently as Evan takes off. "It's too perfect…this _has_ to be it…but what does it _mean?_" He runs his fingers along the print, pondering over the question.

* * *

"Riley!" Evan shouts a while later, rushing back over to where Riley is still sitting. "I found it! It's really there! It took me forever to find it, but I did, and it's just like this one. You totally found it! We gotta get the others over here."

He pulls Riley to his feet and takes off towards the path entrance. Riley, after a second of standing there in shock, shakes it off and quickly gimps after Evan. "It's fate," he mumbles to himself. "I was _meant_ to find this." He gets an excited look on his face and begins to shout for Ben before they even exit the maze.


	36. Part 35

_**Part 35**_

**A/N:** Time for a little change of pace, my readers! Hint...you many want to go back and re-read Part 12 if it's been awhile. ;)

* * *

"Something isn't right," Emily says, pacing the room.

Patrick looks up from studying Riley's notes. "We heard from Ben just the other day. They haven't found anything."

"That's exactly my point – why is it taking them so long? And don't you tell me it's because there really isn't anything there to find. We both know Riley wouldn't do the things he's being accused of."

"I know, Emily, I know," Patrick sighs. "I just wish there was something more we could do from here. If we could just piece this together…"

"Oh, Patrick, stop. We've been at it for days and we aren't any further ahead than where we were before. These notes," she grabs a handful of them off the table, "are just short-hand references to things we don't understand. We've been biding our time waiting for Ben to give us some other clue, and he's found nothing to tell us? He's too smart, too observant for that. He should have found something his first day there. I'm telling you, something is wrong."

"And what do you think we should do about it, Emily? Call Sadusky? Riley has shut down three airports, now. Sadusky's hands are tied, here, along with every other agent in the nation. He already spared us two people to help Ben and Abigail. I think that's the best he can do for us right now."

"What if we can prove that Riley's treasure is real? They'd have no choice but to put agents back in these locations." She stabs her finger at the map as she speaks.

"That's exactly what we've been doing this entire time. That's what Ben is doing right now."

"That's what he's _supposed_ to be doing, but you don't seem to be listening to me – you never really do. Something is _wrong_, Patrick. We need to go down to Roanoke ourselves and find out what it is."

Patrick continues to stare down at the table for a second before looking up at Emily. "It'll take us a while to get there. It's not like we can fly, after all."

* * *

"Ugh, this traffic is atrocious," Emily complains.

"What were you expecting? Did you think we would be the only ones trying to leave town?"

"Of course not. I'm not an idiot…I'm just worried about Ben and Abigail. And Riley. That poor boy has been through enough."

"Well, he doesn't exactly _try_ to keep himself out of trouble," Patrick chuckles. "He did choose to follow around our son, after all. The Gates are a high-risk family."

"Don't I know it," Emily mumbles. Her cell phone vibrates in her purse and she pulls it out.

"Is that Ben?" Patrick asks hopefully.

"No, it's a text message…from 'Aardvark?'"

Patrick suddenly cranks the wheel, hard, pulling the car off to the side of the road.

"Patrick, what are you doing?" Emily yells.

"It's Riley!" he gasps. "That message – it's from Riley!"

"What are you talking about? How do you know that?"

"Does it matter? What does it say?"

"Uh, it just says 'That bookstore is cursed.' What does that mean?"

"It means we have to turn back," Patrick says, and pulls his car back out into traffic.

* * *

"Forty-five minutes?" Emily exclaims, "That drive should have only taken fifteen. And what are we doing here?"

Patrick and Emily walk through the door into the Border's bookstore. "Riley hates this store," Patrick explains. "It's where he lost his car."

"So we're here. What are we looking for?"

"I don't know. Maybe you should send another text?"

"I tried that in the car. There was no answer to any of my questions."

"Then don't ask a question. Just tell him that we're here."

Emily shakes her head, pulling out her phone again. "It's not going to work," she says as she types. She is duly surprised when a text returns just a split-second later. Patrick's eyes light up and Emily gives him a warning glare. "Don't you dare say you told me so, Patrick Gates, or I swear I'll-"

"What does it say, Emily?" he pushes.

"'Follow the yellow brick road.' I suppose we're supposed to find a copy of The Wizard of Oz?"

"I don't know what else that would mean. Let's go."

They quickly find the isle that the book is located on in a back corner of the store and start looking around for anything useful. "There," Patrick says, pointing to a costumer-use computer at the end of the isle. They rush over to it before staring at the screen blankly.

"I'll send another text," Emily offers, and Patrick swiftly nods his head.

_We're here, _she sends again, but there is no response.

"Try something else," Patrick suggests.

_Found it,_ she tries, but still nothing. "Oh, this is ridiculous," she says, frustrated. "Why isn't he responding?"

"I don't think it's actually him that's been talking to us," Patrick thinks out loud. "It's probably a computer program – automated responses. We have to send the right response back to get a new message."

Emily thinks for a second, then types in a new message on her phone: _Reached the Emerald City._

The screen on the computer before them immediately goes black, then a message begins typing itself across the monitor.

"Away above the chimney tops?" Patrick reads aloud just in time before it disappears from the screen, replaced by an impatiently flashing white cursor.

"That's where you'll find me," Emily murmurs, and types it in.

After another agonizing few seconds of nothing, a video suddenly begins to play on the screen – a video of Riley, looking very nervous and with a fresh bruise on his cheek and a split lip. His face fills the screen almost completely, and it appears he his holding the camera as the image keeps shaking around.

"Hey guys. Bet you didn't see this coming, huh? Anyway, I don't have a lot of time to explain. If you're watching this, it means I probably didn't make it."

Patrick and Emily exchange devastated looks.

"Nah, I'm just kidding," the video continues, a mischievous grin plastered on Riley's face. "If you're watching this, it actually means I'm somehow still alive and I'm probably well on my way to the Lost Colony."

There's suddenly a loud knocking sound in the background and as Riley turns his head, the camera shifts to where it faces a sink for a brief second. "Just a minute!" Riley hollers before turning the camera back to his face. "I better get to the point. I'm not sure where I'll be at any given time, but in the end, I'll eventually wind up at the center of the eye. Don't send anyone there to wait for me – you don't know who you can trust. Be careful what you say on your phones and watch your backs. I don't know how many agents Elizabeth has working for her."

Riley drops the camera as another loud bang echoes through the speakers. "Hurry up in there!" a deep voice shouts. "Almost done!" Riley shouts back, scooping the camera up off the ground. "I gotta go before he busts down the door. I'll keep in touch."

With that, the screen goes black again. Patrick and Emily stare at it for another second, and just as they are about to turn away, a new message forms on the screen.

_There's no place like home._

They watch helplessly as the screen reverts back to the normal customer-service software, tears welling up in both their eyes.


	37. Part 36

_**Part 36**_

"How long have you worked for Drake?" Ben asks Victor as they scour the ground around them.

"I don't work for her," Victor explains, "not really. It's more like helping out in a family business – she's practically my mom."

"As in she raised you?"

"Pretty much. She pretty much raised all of us. We're all kind of this big family."

"A big, dysfunctional, mob-like family where you don't know who all your siblings are," Ben states, "Thanksgiving must be fun."

"Well sorry not all of us could be brought up in a nice home with parents who loved them. Elizabeth was the closest thing I had to that."

"But you have to know that how Drake raised you wasn't normal. Look at you – you were taught to shoot people without even batting an eye."

"No, not by her I wasn't. Not originally, anyway. I mean, sure," Victor shrugs, "she helped me hone my skills but I was screwed up well before she got to me. From what I know, we all were. She sought out kids with…special skills."

"So she could turn you all into her own personal army."

Victor frowns, and stops looking at the ground so he can face Ben. "It's not like she just sees us as disposable soldiers. She cares about us, worries about us when we're on mission, looks after us when we're sick or injured. She taught us how to be better at the things we were good at, but she also taught us how to be normal people. I went from having to kill just to survive to going to a normal school, learning basic manners that I didn't even know existed, how to be polite to others, how to have a sense of humor, to work well on a team, to get a good job – I have a life just because Elizabeth gave me the opportunity to have one. For everything she's done for me, I'm more than happy to help her do whatever she wants. We all are."

"Even if that means hurting innocent people?"

Victor looks down at the ground, his voice dropping and becoming distant as he answers, "There are always casualties in war. That's the first lesson I ever learned."

Ben stands up. "But what about this? Right now? There's no conflict, here, no political cause, no religious disagreement, no dispute over land or food. There is no war, here, Victor. Drake is using us to make a name for herself, and she's using you, too."

"You're wrong," Victor shakes his head, also standing. "She's doing all this to help us. Do you know how much easier it's going to be for all of us when she becomes rich and famous? We won't have to do any of these missions for these small-time organizations, anymore. We can fund our own operations, for once, no strings attached. _Everything _we do is a step further in fighting our war, this included."

"…She's really got you brainwashed, hasn't she?" Ben says sadly.

Victor is about to respond when he is cut off by yelling in the distance.

"Ben!" Riley's voice can be heard shouting. Without even looking back at Victor, Ben takes off running in the direction of Riley's voice.

"Ben!" Victor shouts, chasing after him, "Ben, don't make me shoot you!"

Ignoring him, Ben rounds the corner that leads him out of the maze. He runs a few more steps towards the path that Riley had taken when he sees Abigail run out from her own path.

"Ben, stop!" She yells at him, looking frantic.

He immediately skids to a halt, breathing heavily. He sees Abigail's eyes shift to look behind him. Knowing what she sees, he closes his eyes and slowly lifts his arms into the air.

Victor, also breathing heavily, is standing in position, ready to shoot. Elizabeth casually walks out to stand behind Abigail, then turns around to see Joseph man-handling Bobbi out of the maze, despite the fact that she doesn't appear to be fighting him. Evan then steps out of his own entrance.

"Whoa," he says, "what'd I miss?"

Riley comes out right after him, then stops as he looks at the scene before him – gun aimed at Ben, Elizabeth standing stiffly behind Abigail, and Joseph holding Bobbi by one arm pinned behind her back. The smile he had on his face quickly vanishes.

"Okay…glad I wasn't invited to the party," he says nervously.

"Riley, are you okay?" Ben asks.

"Uh, yeah. You?"

"Oh, I'm just fine, thanks," Ben responds, a touch of sarcasm in his voice. "Why were you yelling?"

Riley half-turns, jerkily pointing one hand over his shoulder. "We, we found the horseshoe thingie. Well, I did, anyway." He then begins speaking excitedly, "Ben, it was the most amazing thing! It was like I was drawn to it, like I was _meant_ to find it!"

Ben drops his arms and sighs. Victor shakes his head and places his gun back into his holster.

"I'm serious, Ben," Riley continues, ignoring everyone else as he walks towards Ben. "It's fate, or, or, maybe it's Cro helping me-"

"You have a dead Indian helping you," Ben says disbelievingly, pinching the bridge of his nose. He walks past Riley towards Evan. "So it's this way?" he asks, and Evan nods. Ben walks past him into the maze, and slowly, everyone else begins to follow.

"Maybe it's the gods," Riley continues, unfazed. Abigail touches his elbow as she passes by him.

"Come on Riley," she gently urges.

"Ask Evan," he says defensively, "he saw it. I'm telling you, Abigail, it was more than just luck."

"Okay, Riley," she nods, humoring him as they step between the stone walls.

* * *

Daylight is fading quickly as they wind their way through the red rock around them. They come to another intersection and Bobbi groans. Riley looks excited.

"Let me try again," he says.

"No!" everyone shouts in unison.

"…just one more time?" he asks, "This'll be the one, I can feel it."

"You said that the last four times," Victor points out. They fan out and begin searching the ground as Riley pouts. With all of them searching together, it doesn't take long for Abigail to shout out that she found the horseshoe. They head down the correct path, losing their last rays of sunlight as they reach the end of it.

"Is this it?" Elizabeth asks, staring at the corner where the walls come together before them.

"Well, it's a dead end, just like the story says," Riley shrugs.

"Shouldn't there be a tunnel?" Victor asks, to which Riley just shrugs again.

Ben sets his bag down and digs out a few flashlights, handing one to Abigail and keeping one for himself. Evan quickly does likewise, giving one of the lights from his pack to Elizabeth. Ben kneels down in the corner and runs his fingers along the stone.

"There's definitely something here," he says, brushing away at the sand. He stands back and shines the light on the wall, revealing a small crack. "I think there's a door here. We just have to figure out how to get it open."

"Move," Joseph says, and pushes his way to the front of the group. He squats down against the wall, placing his shoulder next to the exposed crack. Taking a deep breath, he digs his feet into the sand and presses against the stone. After nearly a full minute of trying, he sits back.

"Well that was helpful," Riley states.

"Shut up," Joseph growls, moving back away from the wall. "Got any better ideas?"

Riley thinks for a second, then says, "Actually, I might...Gimme a light."

Ben gives Riley his flashlight, and stands back as Riley swiftly begins brushing sand off the wall to the left of the crack. He tries it in a few spots, then moves over to the right wall and tries again. At the third spot he tries, his hand suddenly freezes in place. "And he scores," he says softly to himself, brushing away more sand.

"What'd you find?" Ben asks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the white rabbit." He steps back and shines the light on the wall where there is a distinct primitive drawing of a white rabbit.

Joseph grumbles, "And how, exactly, does this help us?"

Grinning, Riley reaches out and pushes his fingers against the drawing. It sinks into the stone and they all jump in surprise when a large piece of wall where Ben had found the crack slides straight down into the ground. When the sand cloud it creates dissipates, they stare in surprise at a perfect arch-shaped hole in the wall, standing at roughly three feet in the highest point.

"Ta-da!" Riley sings, spreading his arms out at the hole like a magician revealing a trick.

"Oh, how very Alice in Wonderland," Elizabeth smiles.

"Good job, Riley," Ben grins, and retrieves his flashlight. He bends down, shining the light into the hole. "Looks like it goes pretty far," he tells the group. "Who wants to go first?"

Everyone turns and looks at Evan, who backs up a step. "Huh-uh, no way, not this time. I mean, I like jumping in head-first and all, but not when it's potentially head-first into a spider web." He exaggerates a shiver through his body for emphasis.

"Oh for Christ's sake, I'll go," Bobbi says, grabbing the flashlight out of Evan's hand. She sits down in front of the hole, begins to bend over onto her knees, then sits back on her ankles again. "Hey, Abigail?" she asks.

"Yeah?"

"Do me a favor and just stand behind me until I'm all the way, would ya?"

Abigail gives her a questioning look and Bobbi sighs. "I'm just a little tired of the boys - how do they put it? - 'enjoying the view.'"

"Ah," Abigail nods, and maneuvers herself directly between Bobbi and any spectators, much to their dismay. Bobbi thanks her and bends down to crawl into the hole. She wriggles into it a little ways before calling back.

"It gets a little narrower further in," she calls, "I think everyone should be fine getting through except maybe Joseph."

Joseph raises an eyebrow at Elizabeth. "Oh, it's fine, Joseph," she pats his arm. "You can stay here. We can't have you getting stuck in there."

"Darn," Riley murmurs, then looks up in alarm when he realizes he said that out loud. "Oh, I was just kidding," he spits out, "just a joke big guy, heh, heh."

Joseph glares at him and he hops over to duck behind Abigail. "I'll go next," he says quickly, and practically dives into the hole. Smiling and shaking his head, Evan moves in to follow, then realizes he won't fit with the pack on.

"Guess we're leaving the gear out here," he shrugs, and throws the bag to Joseph, then crawls into the hole.

Abigail goes after him, Ben behind her, followed by Victor. Elizabeth looks hesitantly into the tunnel.

"Why don't you stay out here with me?" Joseph suggests.

"Oh, no, this is what being a real treasure hunter is like. I wouldn't miss this for the world." She gives Joseph one last smile and heads into the darkness.


	38. Part 37

_**Part 37**_

Bobbi lets out a little squeak as a pile of sand falls onto her head.

"You okay?" Riley asks.

"Yeah," she says as she tries to shake the sand out of her hair. "How much further is this tunnel supposed to go?"

"The story says 'for eternity.'" Riley frowns, shaking his head, "But I don't really think that's accurate."

"Well it feels like it," Bobbi grumbles as she continues moving forward, army crawling through the darkness.

She turns around a small bend and stops again as she shines her light ahead of her. "Oh no," she mumbles.

"'Oh no' what?" Riley asks worriedly. "It's never good when people say that."

Ben calls up from further back in the tunnel. "What's going on? Why'd we stop?"

"It's a dead end!" Bobbi calls back, loud enough for Elizabeth to hear at the end of the line.

"Can you dig us out?" Evan suggests.

"Hold on, I'll try," Bobbi responds, and slides herself up against the wall in front of her. She uses her hands at first, and though the sand chips away a little bit, it doesn't seem she is doing much good. Next she turns her flashlight around and uses the back end of it to dig at the wall. A large chunk of loose sand falls away to reveal stone beneath it.

"It's solid rock," she informs the group, then pushes herself onto her knees as best she can in the small space. "Riley, brace my feet," she instructs, and he holds his hands out in front of him, pressing against the soles of her shoes. She takes a deep breath and pushes on the rock, hard. It shifts just a tiny bit, knocking more sand down onto her.

"Did it move?" Riley asks.

"Yeah," she says, annoyed, "a little bit. I think it'll just push out, but I can't move it by myself."

"Scoot over," Riley says, letting go of her feet.

"What?" she asks.

"I'm coming up there. Scoot over."

"Riley I don't think-," she starts to protest, but he is already squirming up beside her. She turns onto her side, pressing her back against the wall as much as possible. Within seconds, Riley is right up next to her, his body pressing against hers and their faces nearly touching.

"Sorry," Riley says sheepishly, unable to keep the grin off his face.

"Just push on the rock," she orders, rolling her eyes.

"Okay," he says quickly, bringing his arms up to press them against the wall. She does likewise and they feel Evan behind them moving up to put one hand on each of their feet. "Thanks, Evan," Riley calls, then turns to Bobbi. "On three?"

She nods and Riley counts down. When he hits "three," they both push as hard as they can. Evan strains behind them to keep them from sliding backwards and, little by little, the rock begins to slide out of the path. More sand begins falling down onto Riley and Bobbi.

"Should we stop?" Bobbi hollers over the rumbling above them.

"No, we're almost there," Riley grunts as he keeps pushing.

With one final shove, the rock breaks away from the wall around it and falls flat forward onto the ground. Riley and Bobbi cover their faces as a small avalanche of rock and sand pours down on top of them.

"Are you okay?" Riley coughs as the last of the debris trickles down.

"I will be when I get out of here," Bobbi replies, and grips the outside edge of the tunnel, pulling herself free. Riley drags himself out behind her and they lay in the open air, coughing out the dust in their lungs. Evan is fast to exit the tunnel next.

"You guys all right?" he asks, helping Bobbi sit up. She nods her head and Riley gives him a thumbs-up and a nod as he continues to cough. "Good," Evan grins, "''cause you guys are gonna have to move out of the way so everyone else can get out."

"And here I was thinking you were genuinely concerned," Bobbi mumbles, though she slides herself off to the side of the tunnel entrance. Riley does likewise and the others thankfully crawl out into the moonlight.

"Oh, I never thought standing could feel so good," Elizabeth smiles, stretching her arms up over her head. She turns back to Riley and Bobbi, who can finally breathe normally. "Good work, both of you."

"Do we get a reward?" Riley asks, looking exhausted.

"I gave you a compliment. Shouldn't that be enough?"

"I was thinking more along the lines of a shower," he offers.

Elizabeth laughs. "Yes, Riley, I think we could all use a shower when we're through, here." She looks at Bobbi's dust-caked blouse. "And I suppose I should spring for some new clothes, too. Looking like _that_ might draw some unnecessary attention."

Bobbi smiles. "Thank God," she mutters, ignoring the insult.

Evan walks past the resting group a few paces before turning back to face them. "I guess I'm up next?" he asks.

"For what?" Victor inquires.

"That." Evan points and everyone collectively walks forward to see what he's pointing at, including Riley and Bobbi. Before them, right in the middle of the near-perfect circle of stone wall surrounding them, stands a single pillar of stone. "The warrior had to climb to the top of it, right?" Evan continues.

"Can you do that?" Ben asks. "Not to doubt your ability, but that looks like a thirty-foot climb up fairly smooth rock."

"Sure, no problem," Evan beams, then turns and strolls towards the pillar. Ben looks at Elizabeth, who merely smiles at him.

"If he says he can do it, he can do it," she explains, then follows after Evan.

"And if he can't," Victor adds, "I guess there'll just be one less of us you have to worry about." He shoots Bobbi a small grin as he walks away.

"Sicko," she mutters, but follows him, leaving Ben, Riley, and Abigail standing alone. Riley moves between them, putting his arms on their shoulders.

"Come on," he tells them with a sigh, "Somebody has to catch him if he falls, and something tells me it's not going to be Victor."

Not waiting for their response, he limps off behind Bobbi. Ben and Abigail sigh at each other, but follow after him just the same. They come up on the pillar as Evan makes his way around the base of it, feeling for handholds in the stone.

"You didn't happen to have rope in those packs you left behind, did ya?" Riley asks smartly.

"Cro did it without a rope, so can I," Evan says, his eyes flashing with excitement in the moonlight. Without another word, he backs up a few steps, then leaps into the air, gripping onto the side of the rock as he connects with the pillar. He clings to it for a few seconds, then quickly but cautiously begins his ascent.

"He's Spiderman," Riley says, shocked.

They continue watching in silence as Evan makes his way to the top. Just as he breaches around twenty feet, his hand slips and he has to scramble to get a new hold on the rock. He slides down a few feet before he is able to stop himself, his audience below letting out a breath of relief in unison. "Ha! Did I scare you?" he yells down, laughing, "I was just seein' if you were paying attention!" When he looks back up, though, the smile on his face disappears and he lets out his own breath. He takes a few seconds to regain his confidence before heading back up again, a little more slowly. When he gets to the top, he hauls himself up onto the flat surface.

"Is there a bird nest up there?" Riley yells up after a few seconds go by.

"No," Evan hollers back down, slightly out of breath. "But, uh, there is a bird."

"Really?" Riley asks, then turns to Ben. "You don't think it's a vulture, do you?"

"I really don't know, Riley" Ben responds, shaking his head.

Evan is quiet for a few more seconds before he peeks his head over the ledge. "So, uh, do you want the good news or the bad news?" he asks.

"Evan, just tell us what you see," Elizabeth commands.

"Okay, so I think I totally found the next little statue thing," he smiles, then hesitates, "…but, uh, I think I need the first statue to get this one out."

When no one says anything to him, he decides to explain further. "There's this carving of a bird up here, looks like that statue will fit right into it…?"

"Ooh, like that pipe from the Charlotte," Riley spits out.

"Makes sense," Ben ponders. "That would explain why we have to follow the story step-by-step. We can't get the last key until we get each one before it."

"That's all good and fascinating, guys," Victor pipes up, "but the real issue, here, is how we're supposed to get the statue up to Evan."

"And I'm not coming back down there to get it!" Evan makes very clear.

"Give me the statue," Abigail says, holding her hand out to Elizabeth.

Ben looks at her in surprise. "You are not climbing that thing," he says.

"No, I'm not," she replies, still holding out her hand. "Just trust me."

Elizabeth frowns, but retrieves the little bird out of her pocket, anyway, handing it over to Abigail. She takes it, then seems to gauge distance as she looks up at Evan. She takes a few steps back away from the pillar. "Shine your lights up there, but don't point them in Evan's eyes," she directs.

Everyone that has a light points them up at the top of the pillar, and Abigail takes a deep breath. Evan, seeming to know what's coming, steps over to the very edge of the platform. Placing one foot back, Abigail begins to wind her arm backwards around in circles. She spins it a few times, and on the last revolution, she opens her hand to release the bird statue into the air. It sails up so quickly that it nearly disappears from sight, and Evan nearly misses it as it flies up in front of him.

"Nice arm!" he calls back down.

She turns to see everyone staring at her - Ben, in particular, as his jaw dropping.

"What?" she says, "I didn't tell you I used to play softball?"

"As a matter of fact, you didn't," he tells her, arms crossing over his chest.

"Go Abigail," Riley smiles, and she laughs.

On top of the pillar, Evan sits down in front of the indentation where the bird statue should fit. Gently, he places the little bone carving into the hole, pressing on it slightly. As he does, the entire small square of stone containing the carving begins to shift and pivot around, just as the section of tree had back in Roanoke. When it rolls over completely, Evan has to, again, pry the lid off the back of the box. Unlike his experience in Roanoke, however, he actually finds a statue hidden within. He reaches in to pull out the bone carving, this time a perfect replica of a horse.

"Got it!" he yells down. He tries to turn the box back around to retrieve the crow statue, but it doesn't turn. Shrugging, he decides to leave it and, tucking the horse inside his shirt, begins his climb down. When he gets about ten feet off the ground, he pushes off the rock and does a back layout over the heads of his spectators, making a graceful landing behind them.

"I saved the colt," he laughs, taking a bow as he pulls the statue out of his shirt. Elizabeth claps wildly and he bows again, grinning from ear to ear.


	39. Part 38

_**Part 38**_

**A/N: **I'm going to estimate that I can get in one, maybe two more parts depending on where I go with it before I might have to take another short hiatus. This time it wouldn't be for any personal reasons or laziness, just another research session. The next location our heroes must travel to doesn't actually have a whole lot of information about it online, so I've had to send out emails to see if I can get some more data to work with, or at least some pictures! So, basically, how quickly I can keep updating depends on how soon I get responses from people and what sort of information they send me. Just thought I'd give a heads-up on that!

* * *

"Joseph, help me up," Elizabeth orders as she crawls out of the tunnel. Joseph, who is sitting against the wall outside the hole, leaps to his feet and puts one hand under her arm, easily lifting her to her feet. One by one, the rest of the adventuring party crawls out after her. Joseph looks at each one of them, their clothes torn and filthy, hair coated in red sand, small cuts and scrapes on their exposed flesh.

"Glad I didn't go after all," he snorts.

"Awe, but you missed so many great moments," Evan tells him. "We had a cave-in right on top of our esteemed guest."

Riley makes an impressed face, "Esteemed guest, now, huh? I guess that does sound better than tortured hostage."

Evan continues, "And I had to scale this super tall pillar, and Abigail should totally pitch for the major leagues, and I found the next statue."

"Thrilling," Joseph states in a very monotone, sarcastic manner.

Evan frowns and Riley tries to offer a comforting explanation, "Probably just one of those times where you sorta had to be there to appreciate it."

"Guess so," Evan shrugs.

"So…," Victor starts by way of changing the subject, "I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not really feeling up to making the trek all the way back to the truck…"

"I know it's dark out here," Riley states, "so in case someone got the wrong idea, I just wanted to point out that I am _not_ the one that said that, but thank you Victor for pointing that out, 'cause I am completely wiped."

"We all are," Ben backs him up. "Why don't we rest here until morning and we can make our way back to the truck, then."

"No," Elizabeth quickly shoots him down, and everyone with the exception of Joseph starts to complain. "Shut up and listen!" she yells, and they fall silent. "That's better. Now what I was going to suggest is that since we've all been gallivanting around for the better part of two hours while Joseph has gotten to sit here, we send him back to drive the truck as close as he can to our location. If people see us like this in the daytime, they'll start asking questions, and I want to avoid that. Joseph, if you would, please?"

Joseph's face contorts a bit, obviously fighting off a scowl and to keep himself from talking back to her. Finally, he simply nods and stomps away.

"Oh, Hallelujah, there is a God," Riley breathes out in relief. "Elizabeth, I'd kiss you right now but the sheer thought of that actually makes me throw up a little in my mouth, so it's gonna have to be a pass."

"Shut up, Riley," Elizabeth says as she sits down. "I'm too tired to go rounds with you right now."

"Which translates to she'll just have Victor put a hole in someone if you keep it up," Evan offers quietly, to which Riley nods with a sigh.

Ben clears his throat. "Weren't there some small blankets in the packs?" he asks.

"Oh, yeah, yeah," Evan says, "I packed 'em figuring we'd be out here late, since that's what happened in the story and all…"

He goes through and pulls them out, counting out three of them. He hands one to Ben, who sits down and pulls Abigail down next to him. Riley is quick to jump in beside them, even though the blanket doesn't quite spread over all three of them.

"I'm not really cold, anyway," he says with a tilt of the head and a shrug.

Smiling, Evan hands Elizabeth another blanket, then looks at Bobbi and Victor. "Only one left," he says as he holds it out.

Bobbi looks at Victor, who has a glimmer in his eyes. "Oh I am not sharing that with you," she says coldly.

"Desert can get pretty cold at night if you're not moving around," Victor tries to explain.

"Riley doesn't have a blanket," she points out.

"But Riley has a Ben to snuggle," Riley says as he gives Ben a big hug, then lets go, laughing, after seeing the look on Ben's face.

"Come on," Victor keeps trying, "It'll be like that time we got assigned to that stakeout together. I'll keep it professional, I promise."

After some hesitation, she sighs and grabs the blanket. "Fine, but you even _think_ about touching me and this blanket is going down your throat."

"Works for me," Victor nods, then turns to Evan, a triumphant look on his face. "Have fun standing watch."

"I'll be sure to trade places with you when my watch's over," Evan responds quietly, then smiles innocently at the angry look Victor gives him. With that, everyone settles in for some rest as they await Joseph's return.

* * *

"…Riley. Riley, dude, you gotta wake up."

"Nooo," Riley mumbles, swatting away at the hand on his arm.

"Yeeesss. Come on, open your eyes sleepy-head."

Riley groans, but opens his eyes to see Evan looking down at him. He starts to sit up, but stops and winces when pain shoots through his entire body. He waits for it to pass, then forces himself up the rest of the way so he can look around him.

"Wha?" he slips out as he realizes he's now about twenty feet from Ben and Abigail. "How did I...?"

"You were sleep-walking," Evan explains, "or actually, sleep-crawling. I heard somewhere it was dangerous to wake someone up when they're sleep-walking so I had to wait 'til you stopped moving."

"How long was I crawling around for?"

"I don't know, like, close to half an hour I think."

Riley groans and flops back over, "No wonder I hurt. I think it would've been better if you just woke me up."

"I didn't know!" Evan defends himself. "…So, what were you dreaming about, anyway?"

Riley squints his eyes in thought. "I don't remember," he says distantly, shaking his head.

Evan shrugs. "Oh well. Come on, let's get you back over to your friends. Lay there like that and you'll just get stiff from the cold." He helps Riley to his feet and walks him back over to Ben and Abigail, who are sleeping soundly in the way that only exhaustion can bring about.

"Why are you so nice to me?" Riley asks as he sits back down.

"I don't know," Evan shrugs, "guess you just sort of remind me of myself, and I think I'm a pretty cool guy, so naturally…" He grins and starts to walk back over to the spot he had chosen to stand guard at.

"Hey Evan," Riley whispers, "weren't you gonna trade with Victor at some point?"

"Nah, I don't wanna get him all worked up again. He can have his moment."

Riley nods, then adds, "Just watch your back with him, okay? I don't think he likes you very much."

"Don't worry. Vikki wouldn't hurt me – we're practically brothers," Evan answers with a smile, but with something dangerous lurking in his tone and a small fire dancing in the light reflecting from his pupils. Riley decides to let the issue drop there and shuts his eyes, hoping sleep will take him again quickly, and peacefully, this time.

* * *

When Joseph returns, they all begrudgingly make their wait out of the maze like a horde of zombies. When they step up into the lighted truck, Elizabeth looks around at all of them with a gasp.

"Oh, we look absolutely atrocious," she mutters. "Joseph, you will drive us to the nearest hotel where we can get showered and changed, and where I can get a decent night's rest."

"Wow, fancy," Riley grins, "springing for a hotel."

"Not for you four," she snaps. "You're staying in the truck."

"But-" Riley begins to protest.

"The couches are fine, Riley," Abigail scolds him.

"Now," Elizabeth continues, "once we've slept, the four of _us_ can see about getting you a change of clothes, after which you will be allowed to clean yourselves up."

"You probably should have planned that a little better before dragging us along on a cross-country treasure hunt to begin with," Ben speculates.

"If you remember, I hadn't intended on taking all of you," Elizabeth snaps. "Riley could have just worn something extra from Evan's wardrobe."

"Awe, hand-me-downs," Riley mocks, and Evan elbows him in the arm. "Ow," Riley whines, but shuts up.

"So, which direction am I supposed to be driving in?" Joseph asks when no one else seems to have anything to say.

"Back east," Riley instructs, "to Wayne County, Ohio."

"Are you serious?" Victor asks.

"No, I was just trying to make this trip last longer. You know, spend more quality time with you guys, get to know you better, do a little bonding…"

"So to Ohio, then," Ben says to shut Riley up.

"But the hotel comes first," Elizabeth reminds him, stepping out of the truck. "Let's go, Joseph, I don't want to stay in these clothes any longer than I have to."

Joseph steps out of the truck, closing the door behind him, and follows Elizabeth to the cab.

"You're letting him get a little too mouthy," he opines to her.

"I'm humoring him, for now. Let him throw his insults and tell his little jokes – it seems to make him feel better, which makes him more cooperative."

"It also seems to be making him think he has some form of control, here."

"He does, in a way. He _is_ the only one who knows where the city is, after all. Don't worry, though; when this is all said and done, I will make sure he pays for each and every time he chooses to open that smart mouth of his."

Joseph can't keep the wide grin from spreading on his face as he drives off into the desert night.


	40. Part 39

_**Part 39**_

**A/N:** So I thought for a little while about trying to pick up the pace a bit. After that last chapter, I was like, "Was that chapter really even necessary?" I mean, I could have just jumped the scene ahead to them in the truck all cleaned up and nearing the next destination with a quick explanation of how they got that way, but you all seemed to like that last chapter. Perhaps when I've developed the characters a bit better, I can start speeding things up then. I don't know - I just don't want anyone getting tired of the story because it's taking too long...Any opinions on that? I aim to please, you know. :)

* * *

"I can't believe they took them," Riley sighs again, staring at the tabletop in front of him that is now devoid of all the monitors.

"Riley, will you please hold still," Abigail begs, squatting in front of him as she pulls what's left of his tattered bandage off his arm.

"But, they took _all_ of them," he complains again.

Ben closes the little refrigerator door after pulling out a few bottles of water and begins passing them around to everyone. "Can you really blame them?" he asks as he hands one to Riley, "You are a computer guru, after all."

"As much as I appreciate the sentiment, it insults me that they think I'm stupid enough to try anything while they're gone."

Bobbi, who is lying back on the couch with her arms gripping the couch end above her head, jumps into the conversation. "You _should_ just be thankful that they left us alone, for once. And if you weren't going to try anything, why are so upset over it?"

Riley shakes his head. "So sad, yet another poor soul who doesn't know the entertainment value of a computer."

"Oh, I get it…So, what, you afraid your guild won't survive without your almighty presence or something?" she teases.

"Sadly, they probably won't," he sighs again. He looks down at his arm as Abigail gets the last of the gauze unraveled. "Ooh, is it supposed to look like that?"

Abigail frowns as she inspects it. "Well, it's only got about two pounds of red dirt caked into it. No wonder it's irritated."

"Irritated? Are you sure it isn't more than that? It looks more infected than irritated to me."

"It's just a little red. I'm sure it'll be fine once we get it cleaned up."

"And, remind me again, Abigail, which university you got your medical license from?" he asks.

"Don't you remember? It was the University of Be Nice to Me or I Won't Help You Anymore," she says, glaring at him.

"Oh, riiight," he drawls in fake remembrance.

She smirks, then looks at Ben. "Hand me another water, and…" she looks around and spots the flipped over trash bin that Bobbi had been using as a chair before, "that trash bucket."

"That's not gonna work," Ben tells her. "There's no soap, no first aid kits with us which means no antiseptic or gauze, and nothing to scrub the sand out of the wound with…unless we want to use our dirty clothes-"

"Uh, I vote _no_ on that," Riley says, raising his hand tentatively.

Abigail looks up at Ben. "I know it won't clean it, but the water will at least rinse _some_ of the sand out before we can take care of it properly."

Riley looks up at Ben, nodding his head.

"But, look at this," Ben gently raises Riley's arm closer to her face, pointing at the crusted-over cut, "The sand is partially forming the clot. You rinse it off, his arm starts to bleed again, and we have nothing clean to rewrap it with. That's not going help in keeping it from getting infected."

Riley looks at Abigail, quickly shaking his head.

"So what do we do? We can't leave it like this," Abigail says.

"They didn't give us much of a choice," Ben answers.

Bobbi stands up and stretches. "Sure they did." She walks over to Ben, holding out her hand. "Give me your wallet."

"My wallet? Why?" he asks as he pulls it out.

"Because mine is still back in the van and Abigail certainly didn't grab her purse," she explains, grabbing Ben's wallet and pulling a credit card out of it.

Riley watches, intrigued. "You don't really think-"

She walks over to the door, shoves the card in the jam, and pops it open before he can even finish his sentence. She hands Ben his card back. "Don't worry, I didn't ruin it," she smiles.

"Wow," Riley exclaims. "You think they would have thought of that…"

"It's a skill base I don't exactly advertise," she shrugs. "I wasn't always an agent, you know."

"Well, all right," Ben grins, "Let's get out of here."

"We can't," Riley says. "How many times do I have to explain this? If we leave, they will – maybe I should say it slow this time – Kill. Your. Parents. And your friends, and ex-coworkers, and anyone else you've ever been on record as having contact with. We have to finish this, Ben, all the way."

"It's an open door, Riley. We can get out, call Sadusky-"

"No, Ben. If there's ever gonna be a time where you _really_ listen to me, now would be it."

"Listen to him, Ben" Bobbi chimes in. "Evan pretty much told me the same thing, and the way he said it – I really don't think he was bluffing. I only opened the door so we can take care of that arm, not plan an escape."

Ben frowns, but nods anyway.

"So…what do we do?' Abigail asks.

"Well, _you_ are going to stay here and keep that door shut. Ben, I need you to go out and keep an eye on their motel room. If anyone comes out, you get away as quickly and quietly as you can and come get us."

"Where will you be?" he asks.

"We're getting us a room," she smiles.

* * *

"Did you get it yet?" Riley asks impatiently.

Bobbi is stooped down in front of one of the motel doors, concentrating on the lock. In another second, she hears a little click and the door pushes open. "Don't be so nervous - that only took me seven seconds. Not my record time, I admit, but no reason to get all antsy."

He follows her into the room, shutting the door behind him. "Sorry, I get a little jumpy whenever we're breaking and entering. With people that want to kill us right around the corner. And you know, I've never once seen you wear those pins in your hair."

"I don't," she says from the bathroom where she's grabbing up soaps and turning the warm water on. "Old habit. I always keep a few in my pocket just in case."

"Right. In case your badge and your gun and a warrant can't get you into a place. I see."

"Hey, I go by the book," she snaps. "I made a promise to – someone...that I'd never do anything illegal again. Now, because of you…" she trails off, shaking her head.

Riley looks down, then glances back up at her. "…I'm sure that, given the circumstances, whoever you made that promise to will understand…"

"Yeah," she says absently as she stares off into another time. She snaps out of it quickly and changes the subject. "Come over here, and grab one of those pillowcases."

Riley jumps to do as he is told, grabbing the pillowcase and moving in beside Bobbi at the sink. She sets the pillowcase aside and grips his wrist, moving it closer to the running water.

"This will probably hurt," she warns him.

"Oh, so nothing new, then," he jokes, but hisses in air just the same when the warm water hits his wound. Very gently, Bobbi uses her fingers to brush away a lot of the sand and dirt bordering the outside of the long cut, then reaches for the soap and a washcloth. She gets the cloth soapy and brings it close to his arm, then pauses.

"This'll hurt even more. You ready?"

"Yes." She barely touches the cloth to his skin. "I mean no!" She stops and waits as he takes in a deep breath and closes his eyes. He nods his head affirmatively, but gasps out the air in his lungs as she begins to scrub. Just as Ben had predicted, the more sand Bobbi scrubs away, the more blood runs down his arm. Riley opens one eye to peek, then turns away looking disgusted.

"When I was eleven," he starts, voice a little strained with the pain, "I used to hang out with this kid – Petie – and this one day we bought some licorice and got a couple pennies back in change. Ow!"

"Sorry," she cringes a little as she works out more sand. "What happened with Petie?"

"Well, after we got those two pennies, we got in this huge argument because I wanted to go play the penny candy machine but he wanted to go crush them on the railroad tracks. We played rock, paper, scissors to settle the argument, which I of course lost as I tend to do with games of chance, so off to the tracks we went."

"There is a system to rock, paper, scissors, you know," she points out.

"I know. But it's not really a system anymore when both people know the system, and because you know the other person knows, you try to think two steps ahead of them but they're doing the same to you, which you figure out pretty quickly so you try to think three steps ahead and so on until both of you end up just saying screw the system and start throwing at random."

"Oddly enough, I actually followed that."

"Huh, most people wouldn't have. Anyway, so we put the pennies on the tracks and waited for the train, and after like five cars had rolled over them, mine got rattled off the track just a little. When the wheel of the next car hit it, the penny shot out and spiraled into my forehead at warp speed. It knocked me clean on my back, and like half a second after Petie jumped down next to me, this board came loose on the side of the next train car and swung just over our heads. If that penny hadn't hit me, the board would have slammed right into us and probably would have made a pretty nice mess out of our bodies."

"And the point of the story is?"

"I kept the penny for good luck. I've been carrying it around in my shoe ever since that day…you know, like you carry around the hair pins."

She laughs. "Hate to tell you this, but I don't think your penny's been very lucky for you."

"See, I knew you'd say that, but let me put it in perspective. I've helped find two of the biggest treasures in American history and I'm well on my way to a third. What are the odds of that happening, huh? On top of that, this is my third time being caught by the bad guys and yet I'm still alive. I got away with assisting in the kidnapping of the _President _and the theft of the _Declaration_. I hack into highly classified government computers for a living – _legally_. And, on top of that, have you seen my car?" He sighs, "I miss my car."

"Well, if that penny actually is good luck, then I'm sure you'll see your car again soon." She pulls his arm up out of the running water, patting some of the blood away with a dry towel. "Looks like we got most of it. Here, hold this on your arm." She hands him the towel and turns to the pillowcase, tearing it into strips. She wraps it around his arm, then stands back to take a look at her makeshift bandage, frowning.

"What's wrong with it?" Riley asks.

"It's too clean. In fact, _we're_ a little too clean right now. We're gonna have to go out and rub some more dirt on our hands and arms. It'll be too obvious otherwise. Come on."

"And two people rolling around in the dirt _won't_ be obvious?" he asks, but she's already practically out the door. "I hope you're still working down there, penny," he swallows, following her.


	41. Part 40

_**Part 40**_

**A/N: **So sorry for the long absence, guys! Real life kind of stepped all over time for fanfics, but good things are happening. I've landed myself in a quasi-job in TV/Film journalism and get to interview celebs! Livin' the dream, lol, but no excuse for leaving you all hanging for so incredibly long. Bad me! But late is better than never, right?

* * *

Ben peers around the corner of the building slowly, ready to pull his head back quickly should the door open. He can see the silhouettes of all four of his kidnappers in the window, appearing to have a heated discussion. Joseph is pointing his finger at Evan, who walks right up to the bigger with no fear, getting close to his face. Elizabeth stands from where she was sitting on the end of the bed, pulling Evan back away from Joseph and pointing towards the door.

"Crap," Ben mumbles, and eases himself back along the wall. As he rounds the back corner of the building, he stops when he sees Bobbi and Riley kneeling on the ground, looking as if they are washing their arms in the dirt. He creeps over to them.

"What are you doing?" he asks.

Riley gently smears another handful of dirt on his bandage. "Building a sand castle. Wanna help?"

"You're supposed to be watching the door," Bobbi tells Ben before he can respond to Riley.

"I was. Evan's on his way out. We should get back to the truck, now."

Nodding, Bobbi and Riley stand and the three of them quickly make their way around the building towards the truck. They stop at the corner and peer around the wall, making sure the way is clear. Ben whispers a curse as he sees Victor strolling out from behind the other side of the building, also heading towards the vehicle.

Riley peeks around Ben. "What do we do, now?" he whispers.

Bobbi replies for him. "We hope that Abigail can hold that door long enough for us to get in the back way. Come on."

Carefully, quietly, the three shuffle over to the back of the truck, hearing Victor pounding on the side door. Bobbi pulls out her makeshift lock picks once more, working quickly at the padlock chaining the big bay door down.

"Open this door, now!" Victor hisses, trying to keep his voice down so he doesn't wake the other hotel residents.

Abigail's muffled voice can be heard from inside. "I'm trying! It's stuck!"

"I swear to God, if you guys don't open this door in the next two seconds, I'm shooting my way in." Victor pulls out one of his guns, pulling a silencer out of his jacket pocket.

Riley taps Bobbi's shoulder. "Uh, Bobbi-"

"I heard him, Riley. Almost there!" she shoots back.

Victor points his gun at the door handle. "You all had better stand back. That's the only warning I'm giving you."

Just as he is about to pull the trigger, a hand suddenly comes down on the gun. The bullet fires harmlessly into the sand.

"Really, Vikki?" Evan tsks. "If you're not smarter with your toys, mommy'll take them away."

"I can't get the door open. What am I supposed to do?" Victor asks, flustered.

"You just have to be smarter than the door." Evan smiles, running his hands over the hinges. Slipping a pocketknife out of his pocket, he bends down and pops the pin out of the bottom hinge. He goes for the top one, then stops himself. "Hey, hold the door up, would ya? I don't want it falling and making a bunch of noise." He waits while Victor gets himself into a position to brace the weight of the door. In one quick motion, Evan pops the hinge and pulls the door straight down onto Victor, sending the younger man off the step and flat onto his back, the door landing on top of him.

"Oh no!" Evan says in mock alarm. "Are you okay, Vikki?" Pulling the door off, he checks to see that Victor is unconscious. Without looking up, he says, "Do you have any idea how noisy that bay door is when it opens?"

Bobbi freezes just as the padlock clicks open. Sighing, she slowly snaps it back into its locked position and stands up straight.

"Busted…" Riley whispers before he steps around to the side of the truck to face Evan. Ben and Bobbi follow as Abigail steps into the open doorway.

Evan stands and shakes his head, frowning, but with a touch of amusement in his eyes. "Last time I cover for you, I mean it. You guys are killing me, here!"

Riley smiles. "And I ask again, why, exactly, _did_ you cover for us?"

"Eh," Evan shrugs, "something he said pissed me off." He leans in to whisper to them conspiratorially, "I have a slight temper problem."

"Really?" Bobbi says, lifting an eyebrow.

He merely smirks in return, then points at the truck. They all head back in as Evan leans over Victor once again.

"Vikki? Vikki?" he asks worriedly, tapping the young man on the face a few times.

Victor blinks open his eyes, looking confused as he focuses on Evan's face. "What happened?" he asks groggily.

Evan begins to ramble apologetically. "Dude, I am soooo sorry. It just kind of sprang out when I popped that hinge. The pressure must have built up, or- I don't know, I didn't see it coming. Man, you took that hit hard! Are you okay? Can I get you anything? Should I get Liz?"

"No, no," Victor waves him off, strength returning to his voice. "I'm fine. Just, don't tell anyone about this, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, sure." Evan stands and offers his hand to Victor, who accepts the help up.

Victor shakes his head, then looks up to see Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Bobbi staring at him from inside the truck. He shoots them all a glare. "Don't you dare tell anyone, either," he says with part malice, part embarrassment. The four of them quickly mumble their assurances.

Ben points down to the door on the ground. "Need any help getting that back on?"

Evan stoops down to pick it up. "Nope, I think we can handle it. You guys just go sit back down. I've got everything under control." He gives them a subtle wink as they move away from the doorway. Making quick work of repairing the door, Evan hauls Victor back towards the hotel room, repeatedly asking after his health.

Inside, Riley grabs a juice box out of the fridge. "I like Evan, but I can't quite figure him," he says.

Ben nods from his spot next to Abigail on the couch. "They were all arguing about something…Drake kicked him out of the room…"

Bobbi chimes in from her seat on the opposite couch. "But she seems to put a lot of stock in what he has to say, too. He must have done something to win that much of her trust."

Abigail sighs. "Personally, I don't want to know what he's done. I prefer to just remain glad that he seems to be, for some odd reason, on our side in this."

"Not me," Bobbi shakes her head. "Not that I'm not thankful for him saving our butts so many times, but he's got something up his sleeve."

"Or, maybe," Riley says as he sits down beside Bobbi, "he's just a guy who's learned the error of his ways and is trying to make up for it. Ever think of that, Miss Negative?"

Bobbi looks at him for a second before speaking. "Stockholm syndrome."

Riley gasps. "I do _not_ have Stockholm syndrome!"

"You absolutely have Stockholm syndrome," she argues. "In fact, maybe that's been his game this whole time, to gain our trust. It's classic good cop, bad cop."

"Good kidnapper, bad kidnapper? Really? That is so lame," Riley laughs.

Ben taps his finger on the couch arm. "I don't know, it could be a possibility. I mean, it would make sense to place someone on their side that we could feel comfortable with, maybe talk to a little more freely. They could get information from us easier that way…"

"Information?" Riley asks. "I'm already telling them everything they need to know! I'm leading them right to the freakin' colony. What more could they want?"

Softly, Abigail says. "We just want to use caution, Riley. I'd like to be optimistic, too, but I understand the concern."

Riley stands up. "This is ridiculous! Are you guys hearing yourselves? I'm in a van full of paranoid people!"

"Yep, Stockholm syndrome," Bobbi mutters.

Riley throws up his hands, exasperated, before plunking himself down into the computer chair on the other side of the truck. He leans his head down onto the empty table, resting it on his crossed arms. "You guys suck," he says, his voice muffled into his bandaged arm. A few seconds later, his soft, even breathing reaches their ears.

Ben shakes his head. "We'll have to keep an eye on him, but I don't think we should talk about this any more when he can hear us."

"Because of his Stockholm syndrome?" Bobbi asks.

"Because until we showed up, Evan was the only person Riley could depend on, and may be his only spark of hope in getting out of this alive. I don't want to take that spark from him."

"It could be dangerous if we let this play out," Bobbi warns.

"And it could be dangerous if we don't," Ben counters. "For now, as long as Evan's putting on a show of being the good guy, we put on a show of trusting him."

"Just remember who's tricking who," Bobbi mutters, then turns over on the couch to face away from him.

Abigail pats Ben's leg. "I think we should get some sleep, too."

He nods, and they settle down for the night.

Above them, lying next to the thin vent slats in the top of the truck, Evan sighs. Hands laced behind his head, he looks up at the stars scattered across the night sky and smiles.


	42. Part 41

They followed the sunrise for days

And Cro welcomed the cool air

Brushing against his bruised body.

"We are here," Rabbit smiled.

Stallion stopped at the edge of a great lake

Surrounded by a ring of floating green and red stars.

Squat hills peppered the distant shore

And a great forest whispered all around them.

"We must go deep into the trees," Rabbit whispered.

Cro nodded and urged Stallion forward.

They traveled in the shadows of the Great Ancestors

Until the earth beneath Stallion's feet

Sunk away into shallow waters.

"I can go no further," Stallion said with sorrow.

Cro slid from Stallion's back

And the water reached above his knees.

He paid it no mind.

"Wait here my friend," he said

Offering a smile of understanding.

"Rabbit will guide the way."

Stallion nodded and Rabbit jumped down

Landing on the warrior's strong shoulder.

"We must go deep into the waters," Rabbit whispered.

Cro nodded and urged his legs forward.

The mud beneath his feet pulled at his legs

But he did not falter.

When the waters reached above his waist

He moved forward still.

"Rabbit,"

He said with a shiver in his voice,

"What is it that we seek?"

"A flower,"

Rabbit replied

With a soft, sad voice,

"A fragile life with a purple heart,

Her petals soft and pink."

"What value has she to you?"

Cro asked gently.

"Her death will mean life for my family,"

Rabbit explained.

"They are ill.

Only she holds the cure."

Cro reached a trembling hand to stroke Rabbit's ears.

"Then we will find her

And we will thank her for her sacrifice."

Cro walked for miles

And his body grew tired.

Ice traveled through him

And he shook with the effort to keep it at bay.

The ground sloped away beneath him

And the water rose to meet his chest.

It wrapped tightly around his ribs

Squeezing until the warrior struggled to draw breath.

With heavy limbs he pushed himself ahead

Fighting against the icy fingers

That wrapped around his heart.

"We're almost there."

The plea in Rabbit's tone renewed his fight

And Cro lifted heavy eyes to see a rock before him

Nestled in the center of a circle of trees.

Sun smiled down upon the rock

Feeding it warmth.

Feeding it life.

Atop the rock sat the pink maiden

Stretching her purple heart to Sun's glow.

Cro smiled and took another step

But his foot found no ground beneath it.

He plunged into the icy water

And as it climbed over his head

He felt the icy fingers clench his heart tighter.

_I'm sorry,_

He thought as he felt his heart

Freeze within his chest

And he felt the air

Freeze within his lungs.

_I have failed._

Blackness took him away

But it did not hold him for eternity.

His eyes opened to find Sun

Smiling down on him

And Rabbit

Smiling down at him

And Salamander

Waving at him with a four-toed foot.

"Salamander and his kin

Have saved your life,"

Rabbit explained.

"Then I owe him my service,"

Cro whispered with a trembling voice,

"And my thanks."

"But first you must rest

And let Sun warm your heart,"

Salamander instructed.

"The flower?"

Cro asked.

"She is here beside you,"

Rabbit smiled.

"She has seen your pure spirit

And is touched by it.

In return for the sacrifice you were willing to make

She has offered her life to you."

Cro turned his head to gaze upon the pink maiden.

She bowed to him in honor.

"Thank you, maiden,"

He whispered

And let Sun kiss him back to sleep.

When next he awoke

He was dry and warm.

A body pressed against his,

Soft and comforting.

"Welcome back,"

Stallion greeted.

"Salamander and Rabbit returned you to me

But Rabbit could not wait.

He wishes you well and offers his thanks."

Cro nodded and sat up slowly.

"And Salamander?"

He asked.

"Here."

Salamander sprung from within Cro's water skin.

"You offered your service to me,"

He reminded.

"And I will fulfill that promise,"

Cro answered.

"Then you must take me west

To where the land falls away

And my cousin lives atop a great tower

Overseeing his people."

"Then guide us Salamander

We will take you there."

Cro stood on shaky legs.

"Are you certain you can travel?"

Stallion asked with concern.

"Yes, Stallion, I can travel."

There was stone in Cro's voice

And Stallion questioned him no further.

Warrior and Stallion and Salamander looked west

And chased Sun once again

As she sunk below the horizon.


	43. Part 42

__**A/N:** Christ on a tricycle, I'm not dead! It's been what? Ten months? I'm soooooo sorry! Also, I had to reread this entire story from the beginning so I remembered where the hecksters I was going with it, and I want to apologize for all the little mistakes I caught here and there, lol. One of these days I may go back and fix things in all those old chapters, but not until the story is done! ...And I hope there aren't too many in this chapter, either, 'cause this is coming at you not beta'd. Sorry in advance for anything I missed! Feel free to point anything out in the reviews. :)

* * *

_**Part 42**_

"This is so great," Riley says, a huge grin on his face as limps along the wooden pathway through the bog, leaning on Ben to help keep some of the weight off his bad knee. "What are the odds that our rock would be within sight of one of these convenient walkways? Probably like one in a hundred. I'd have to calculate the actual area of the park and divide it by how many paths were actually built, and then-"

"Riley, shut up," Joseph mumbles.

"I'm just trying to share my good mood," Riley continues, unfazed by the bigger man's tone. "New clothes, no germ-infested bandages that'll make my arm rot off, a fresh wad of cotton keeping me from hearing half of the big guy's threats, I don't smell like I haven't showered in five millennia, and it turns out that even though Brown's Lake Bog has virtually no information online that would be remotely helpful, this'll probably be our easiest find. What's not to be happy about?"

Bobbi looks at him in disbelief. "Why don't you try: being forced to walk several miles through a swamp in the middle of nowhere, Ohio at gunpoint by a group of terrorists?"

Riley glances at her over his shoulder. "Silver lining. I was going for…nevermind. Why am I always surrounded by such negative people? Except you, Ben. You can find a silver lining from inside a void in the universe, which technically would be impossible, but that only makes my point-"

Ben cuts him off. "Thank you, Riley, I understood the compliment. How far until we reach this rock, again?"

Evan calls back from the front of the line, map in hand. "Only about twenty more minutes, amigos, then some lucky devil's going swimming."

"What, not volunteering this time, Mr. Thrillseeker?" Victor teases.

Vigorously shaking his head, Evan responds with, "No, dude, no way. That water's cold as balls and I don't have my wet suit. I did the last two, it's someone else's turn."

"Well I'm certainly not doing it," Elizabeth says.

"Me either," Riley shoots out. "I can't really lead the way to the lost colony if I die of hypothermia. Just saying."

Ben sighs. "I'll do it." At their surprised looks, he merely shrugs one shoulder as his lips pull up in a half grin. "If the next one winds up being harder, I can say I already took my turn."

Riley nods in appreciation. "_That _is sound Riley logic, right there. I'm proud of you, Ben, you're learning."

"Learning they were going to make one of us do it, anyway," Ben murmurs. "Honestly, I just didn't want to hear them argue about it."

Riley relents with a tilt of his head. "Yeah, they are pretty much the most dysfunctional family of bad guys that's ever kidnapped us, aren't they?" He looks up, catching the angry glares from Victor and Joseph. "That was a stage whisper, wasn't it? I did mention new, shiny cotton ball messing with my hearing, right? Volume control kind of…" Everyone glares at him, now. "'Shut up, Riley.' Got it."

They walk in blessed silence until the trees spread out into a clearing to the left side of the wooden bridge spanning the swamp. Evan stops and points out across the thick blanket of floating leaves. "Is that your rock?"

Riley shrugs. "I haven't seen any other random boulder floating in the middle of the woods, have you?"

Abigail squints out across the waters. "Should there be a flower?"

Riley shakes his head. "Nope, there can't be because Rabbit ran off with it, remember?"

"It could've grown back," Bobbi points out.

"Don't question the legend," Riley says, then pushes himself away from Ben's supportive grip. "You sure you want to do this?"

"No, but I don't really have a choice" He smiles over at Riley and Abigail. "At least there's dry clothes waiting for me in the truck, right?"

"And," Evan says with a smile as he pulls his pack around to the front, zipping it open slightly to reveal what's inside, "I thought ahead. Got you a nice, warm towel."

"Oh, how thoughtful," Elizabeth says warmly. Her tone darkens as she turns her attention to Ben. "Well, get on with it."

Ben reaches out his hand. "The carving."

She fishes it out of her pocket and places it gently in Ben's palm, and waits impatiently as he sheds off his shirt, shoes, and socks. Taking one preparatory breath, Ben focuses on the rock and steps off the bridge. The water that splashes up around his waist sprays everyone on the path, causing them all to jump back in alarm.

"Wow, that's cold," Riley states. "You should probably hurry, Ben."

"You think?" Ben shoots back through clenched teeth, already starting to shiver as he trudges through the icy water.

"Watch your footing," Riley calls to him, trying to be helpful. "You don't want to get caught off guard by the drop-off Cro stepped into."

"Thank you, Riley, I remember," Ben says a little more irritably, hissing as the water climbs up to his chest. He places his feet carefully, feeling around for a solid purchase on the slick mud underneath, hoping to avoid plunging all the way under when he isn't ready for it. When he's only around ten feet away from the rock he finds his foot hovering over nothing, and holds his breath as he pushes off the ground in order to swim. It's a struggle not to gasp in the frigid water as it wraps around his shoulders, and his arms already begin to feel sluggish as he pulls himself towards his destination.

"Almost there, Ben!" Riley shouts.

He chooses not to answer, instead just keeping his head above water and his eyes locked on his target. When his hand reaches out to grip the rock, he hauls himself onto it as much as he can in frantic desperation, flopping down into the warm sunlight streaming through the branches above. His body quakes with violent shivers as it tries to warm up his system, and it's all he can do not to allow his teeth to rattle out of his head.

"Ben? Are you okay?" Abigail calls, her voice thick with worry.

Closing his eyes for a second to gather strength, he holds up a shaking hand and waves it at her. Pushing himself up on one elbow he inspects the surface of the rock, frowning at the layer of green covering everything above the water line. With numb fingers, he struggles to pull the vegetation away until finally he sees the outline of the small horse etched into the stone. Heaving a sigh of relief, he presses the horse figurine into it, and…

Nothing happens. Frowning, he clears more of the moss away from the crack where the trap door should turn and tries to help the box roll over like it should.

"Um, guys, we have a problem," he says as loudly as he can, his voice broken by his shivers. "The box won't turn."

Riley's jaw drops open for a second. "I jinxed it. I _know_ better. You say something's too easy, it'll turn _not_ easy. Happens every time. Why would I _say _that?"

"Shut up, Riley," Elizabeth snaps before turning back to Ben. "Do you know what's blocking it?"

"I think the moss grew down into the stone, stopping up the axles," he responds as he continues to poke and prod at the edges of the box. "I need something long and sharp to clear it out of the cracks."

Riley looks down at his arm, over at Elizabeth's head, then quickly snatches the blade out of her hair. Joseph is on him in a second, throwing him down to the boardwalk and tearing the weapon from Riley's grip as Evan puts himself between Elizabeth and the potential danger. Victor stands over the two of them pointing his gun down at the computer tech's head.

"Whoa, whoa!" Abigail shouts. "It was for Ben, for Ben to clear the moss! That's it!"

"Right," Riley pants from beneath Joseph's weight. "Probably should've spelled out the plan, there. My bad."

"Let him up, Joseph," Elizabeth says curtly, then sneers down at Riley as Abigail helps him get back to his feet. "For someone so smart, you can be incredibly dense sometimes. You're lucky they didn't kill you."

"Sorry, just got caught up in the moment," Riley mumbles. He points at the thin blade still in Joseph's clenched fist. "But it's perfect, right? We just have to figure out a way to get it to Ben."

She studies it for a second, then looks over at Ben's slightly expectant, slightly concerned face. "Victor, bring it to him."

"What? Me? Why?" he asks, astonished. "Evan's the big swimmer."

She turns her angry glare on him. "Because he's right, he shouldn't have to do another one, and you know how Joseph is about water."

"But, if we're going to be handing Ben a weapon, shouldn't I be over here pointing a gun at his head?"

Joseph shoots Victor a small grin. "Which one of us is SWAT again?"

"He's got ya there, buddy," Evan laughs.

"Well I don't see him carrying his super sniper rifle," Victor argues. "All we have are the handguns, and I'm a better, faster shot with those."

Elizabeth, fed up, snags the blade from Joseph's hand and shoves it into Victor's. "Go, Victor, this is not up for debate."

Pressing his lips together for a second, Victor huffs out a frustrated breath and begins to strip down. "This is so not fair," he complains. "Should just send another one of _them_ to do it."

"Right, and why don't we just hand them one of your guns while we're at it?" Evan quips. "Real smart thinking, Vikki."

"Shut up," Victor snaps just before he jumps into the water, making certain to splash the water back in Evan's direction.

Bobbi watches the whole argument with a speculative look, one that Abigail catches. Abby cocks a questioning eyebrow at her, to which Bobbi just shakes her head and mouths the word, "Later." Nodding, Abby then turns her attention back to Riley.

"Are you hurt?"

"Is that a trick question?" he asks, keeping his eyes glued on Victor and Ben.

She sighs, seeing the way he's keeping the weight off his bad leg, and moves beside him, pulling one of his arms over his shoulder. He accepts the aide without argument, and both of them keep a wary eye on the happenings across the bog, showing outward concern that Victor - alone with Ben and holding a weapon - might take his frustrations out on an easier target when no one will be there to stop him.


End file.
